A new Erasmus+ Project “iFEMPOWER: Interactive and mentorship based FEMale emPOWERment in the field of entrepreneurship” officially launched during its kick-off meeting which was held on the 13th-14th of September 2018 in Sigmund Freud Private University, Vienna, Austria.
The 3-year long project is coordinated by HÉTFA from Hungary and is implemented under Erasmus+ programme KA2: Strategic partnership in the field of Higher Education. The project iFEMPOWER seeks to empower female university students to get engaged in self-employment and entrepreneurship especially.
The project is starting with an in-depth research on female entrepreneurs in each partner country based on personal interviews and focus groups. This will analyze the current situation and challenges faced by female entrepreneurs.
Then an international curriculum for a complex module will be developed by partners gathered from three pillars of the knowledge triangle, i.e. businesses, business support organizations, the academia and universities.
The module will support university students from any fields to broaden their knowledge on entrepreneurship related topics with a special regard to work life balance. It will also provide hands-on training improving both hard and soft skills. Partner universities will test the curriculum, namely the Corvinus University of Budapest (Hungary), Sigmund Freud University (Vienna), Bifröst University (Iceland) and Sapientia Hungarian University of Transylvania (Romania).
The project represents an innovative and participatory approach by providing a mentorship programme for students by connecting them to entrepreneurs. iFEMPOWER will also launch personal consultancy to provide further support for their engagement through the female entrepreneurship counselling points launched at each partner institution. Moreover, through an online toolkit all developed materials and necessary information will be accessible.
The partnership of iFEMPOWER consists of the following organisations: HÉTFA (HU), Andalucía Emprende (ES), Oneco Consulting S.L. (ES), Sigmund Freud Privatuniversität Wien (AT), Sociedade Portuguesa de Inovaçao (PT), Bifröst University (IS), Corvinus University of Budapest (HU), Sapientia Hungarian University of Transylvania (RO), Steinbeis GmbH & Co.KG für Technologietransfer (DE).
Moreover, the following associated partners contribute to the project:
- Lean in Femspace (AT),
- PONT Group (RO),
- Icelandic Directorate of Labour (IS).
More pictures of the kick-off meeting are available here and the video here.