Women 4 Women(W4W)-Business Support for Women in East Midlands.

Employment and Training Links Limited
82 Countess Road, Sheffield, S1 4TE. Phone: 0114 278 7722
(Registered in England and Wales No. 4716937)

Home   Services   Partners    News and Reports    Links    Women4Women   Worksop Training Centre   The Team        Learndirect Delivery Partner     Contact Us

Women 4 Women (W4W) BUSINESS SUPPORT FOR WOMEN IN EAST MIDLANDS

Women 4 Women (W4W) is an Objective 2 project for east midlands, part funded by ESF. Click here to sign up.

ESF - Women 4 Women (W4W) project will address the relatively low rate of start-ups by women and the difficulties they face in growing a small business. W4W will also address the barriers that prevent women from starting their own businesses including:

Finding an appropriate work/life balance

Appropriate access to childcare

Career planning with integrated business planning and proving information

Advice, guidance and business support appropriate to the needs of women

W4W project will address the key objective in Women's Enterprise 2020: an action plan to boost women's enterprise in the East Midlands under its strategic priority 1: Every woman across the East Midlands has access to high-quality, women-friendly business support from the pre, pre-start-up stage onwards.?

The W4W project will predominantly be delivered by women, for women; providing sensitive, appropriate support. It will be unique and innovative as it will not only provide business start-up/business development support but will also give career and lifestyle support. This will enable women to plan the change from their current lifestyle to a self-employed/business owner lifestyle fitting in with their other responsibilities. This will include providing, where appropriate, a career development plan that incorporates personal development and training, income and personal financial planning, transition planning [from employment or unemployment to self-employment and from owner/sole trader to employer]. It will provide women with support to access existing services and lobby these services to be sensitive to the needs of women, providing an advocacy service where existing services prove to be unsuitable for the needs of the beneficiary.

W4W project will [usually] follow four phases, which will be:

idea development

life planning

business planning

post start-up/development mentoring.

It will help women to take their business ideas, develop it into a workable business proposition, plan the personal transition into self-employment or the role of employer [including where appropriate identifying childcare], develop a basic business development plan and access business start-up services [such as the USO] or existing business development services.

Post start-up/business progression it will provide a mentoring and support service that will challenge ?female unfriendly? business support services, help access benefits support [such as working family tax credits], help access training, assist with staff recruitment, advise on systems development and provide advice and information on existing support services. It will also create a women's support network from the beneficiaries, where they can interact in person and on-line, discussing issues [business and personal] with other women who are in the same position. This project will avoid duplication of existing services, but seek to influence them to be more female friendly.

Stages of the W4W Project

The first stage of W4W project will be the awareness raising and promotion of the service.

The process will be to arrange open days in 11 local venues across the eligible areas in East Midlands. We currently anticipate the following locations will be targeted: Gainsborough [targeting West Lindsey wards], Sleaford [targeting Lincoln, & North Kesteven wards] Mablethorpe [targeting East Lindsey wards], chesterfield [targeting the targeting the Bolsover and Chesterfield wards], Mansfield [targeting Mansfield and Ashfield Wards], Worksop [targeting the Bassetlaw wards], Edwinstowe [targeting the Newark & Sherwood wards], Bakewell [but promoted to the fully eligible Peaks & Dales area], Derby, Nottingham and Leicester.

The promotional activity will involve advertising the event 1 month in advance, concentrating on media services and sites more likely to be seen by women. The advertising will encourage potential beneficiaries to telephone for a specific appointment, but we will cater for drop in beneficiaries on the day of the event. The events will be aimed at both women considering starting a business and those with small businesses wishing to consider expansion/growth ideas.

On the day beneficiaries will be able to discuss with an adviser their general ideas, barriers and concerns and get an idea of whether their ideas can be brought to fruition. Beneficiaries who wish to progress their ideas will be allocated a personal adviser to help them progress their ideas. Those for whom our service is not appropriate will be referred on to the most appropriate service, with some advocacy if necessary.

The Second stage of the W4W project will be a pre-pre planning session targeted at looking at the viability of the beneficiaries ideas in the ?round? context of their life plans. This will look at the feasibility of the individual starting or [for those already in business] developing/growing the business. This will look at the whole picture and seek to identify the issues that will prevent the new business starting or existing business growing.

It will include such things as childcare/home-making responsibly, lifestyle/time available v time required; skills sets, knowledge and understanding required and how, if lacking it might be developed etc.

This will identify four basic types of beneficiary.

The first group will be those that are ready but face no female specific barriers.

Secondly there will be those who are ready to progress by have female specific barriers.

Thirdly, there will be those who need to take some action first and may or may not face female specific barriers.

Finally, there will be those who choose no to progress their business idea at this time.

The first group will be referred to existing business support/business start support organisations; the second group will be allocated a key worker and moved into stage 3; the third group will be referred to other agencies that can meet their needs [such as training, work-finding, work-experience etc.] but given a contact [key worker] for when their development is complete and they are ready to move their business ideas forward; the final group will where possible be referred to other agencies [career guidance etc.] for more specialised help.

The third stage of the W4W project will be to work with those beneficiaries to develop their ideas into a workable plan [an outline business plan or, for existing businesses, a business development plan]. This plan will take account of each individual's circumstances, needs and perceived barriers and be individually tailored to take them forward. It will also seek to identify additional support services and programmes that will need to be accessed. The beneficiary will receive individual support on a one-to-one basis to develop this plan.

The fourth stage of W4W project will be to support the beneficiary in completing their plan. This will include referral to other business support services; advocacy with these and other agencies; support with business research; help identifying finance and other resource support; and other appropriate support for the beneficiary to achieve their aims.
Click here to see if you are eligible for the project: Check Post Code Eligibility                         Type in your postcode and it should come up as eligible to be able to sign up on the project.

Home   Services   Partners    News and Reports    Links    Women4Women   Worksop Training Centre   The Team        Learndirect Delivery Partner     Contact Us

All Rights Reserved ETL LTD Site developed by Shefali Arora


Employment and Training Links Limited 82 Countess Road, Sheffield, S1 4TE. Phone: 0114 278 7722 (Registered in England and Wales No. 4716937)
Home Services Partners News and Reports Links Women4Women Worksop Training Centre The Team Learndirect Delivery Partner Contact Us
	Women 4 Women (W4W) BUSINESS SUPPORT FOR WOMEN IN EAST MIDLANDS Women 4 Women (W4W) is an Objective 2 project for east midlands, part funded by ESF. Click here to sign up. ESF - Women 4 Women (W4W) project will address the relatively low rate of start-ups by women and the difficulties they face in growing a small business. W4W will also address the barriers that prevent women from starting their own businesses including: Finding an appropriate work/life balance Appropriate access to childcare Career planning with integrated business planning and proving information Advice, guidance and business support appropriate to the needs of women W4W project will address the key objective in Women's Enterprise 2020: an action plan to boost women's enterprise in the East Midlands under its strategic priority 1: Every woman across the East Midlands has access to high-quality, women-friendly business support from the pre, pre-start-up stage onwards.? The W4W project will predominantly be delivered by women, for women; providing sensitive, appropriate support. It will be unique and innovative as it will not only provide business start-up/business development support but will also give career and lifestyle support. This will enable women to plan the change from their current lifestyle to a self-employed/business owner lifestyle fitting in with their other responsibilities. This will include providing, where appropriate, a career development plan that incorporates personal development and training, income and personal financial planning, transition planning [from employment or unemployment to self-employment and from owner/sole trader to employer]. It will provide women with support to access existing services and lobby these services to be sensitive to the needs of women, providing an advocacy service where existing services prove to be unsuitable for the needs of the beneficiary. W4W project will [usually] follow four phases, which will be: idea development life planning business planning post start-up/development mentoring. It will help women to take their business ideas, develop it into a workable business proposition, plan the personal transition into self-employment or the role of employer [including where appropriate identifying childcare], develop a basic business development plan and access business start-up services [such as the USO] or existing business development services. Post start-up/business progression it will provide a mentoring and support service that will challenge ?female unfriendly? business support services, help access benefits support [such as working family tax credits], help access training, assist with staff recruitment, advise on systems development and provide advice and information on existing support services. It will also create a women's support network from the beneficiaries, where they can interact in person and on-line, discussing issues [business and personal] with other women who are in the same position. This project will avoid duplication of existing services, but seek to influence them to be more female friendly. Stages of the W4W Project The first stage of W4W project will be the awareness raising and promotion of the service. The process will be to arrange open days in 11 local venues across the eligible areas in East Midlands. We currently anticipate the following locations will be targeted: Gainsborough [targeting West Lindsey wards], Sleaford [targeting Lincoln, & North Kesteven wards] Mablethorpe [targeting East Lindsey wards], chesterfield [targeting the targeting the Bolsover and Chesterfield wards], Mansfield [targeting Mansfield and Ashfield Wards], Worksop [targeting the Bassetlaw wards], Edwinstowe [targeting the Newark & Sherwood wards], Bakewell [but promoted to the fully eligible Peaks & Dales area], Derby, Nottingham and Leicester. The promotional activity will involve advertising the event 1 month in advance, concentrating on media services and sites more likely to be seen by women. The advertising will encourage potential beneficiaries to telephone for a specific appointment, but we will cater for drop in beneficiaries on the day of the event. The events will be aimed at both women considering starting a business and those with small businesses wishing to consider expansion/growth ideas. On the day beneficiaries will be able to discuss with an adviser their general ideas, barriers and concerns and get an idea of whether their ideas can be brought to fruition. Beneficiaries who wish to progress their ideas will be allocated a personal adviser to help them progress their ideas. Those for whom our service is not appropriate will be referred on to the most appropriate service, with some advocacy if necessary. The Second stage of the W4W project will be a pre-pre planning session targeted at looking at the viability of the beneficiaries ideas in the ?round? context of their life plans. This will look at the feasibility of the individual starting or [for those already in business] developing/growing the business. This will look at the whole picture and seek to identify the issues that will prevent the new business starting or existing business growing. It will include such things as childcare/home-making responsibly, lifestyle/time available v time required; skills sets, knowledge and understanding required and how, if lacking it might be developed etc. This will identify four basic types of beneficiary. The first group will be those that are ready but face no female specific barriers. Secondly there will be those who are ready to progress by have female specific barriers. Thirdly, there will be those who need to take some action first and may or may not face female specific barriers. Finally, there will be those who choose no to progress their business idea at this time. The first group will be referred to existing business support/business start support organisations; the second group will be allocated a key worker and moved into stage 3; the third group will be referred to other agencies that can meet their needs [such as training, work-finding, work-experience etc.] but given a contact [key worker] for when their development is complete and they are ready to move their business ideas forward; the final group will where possible be referred to other agencies [career guidance etc.] for more specialised help. The third stage of the W4W project will be to work with those beneficiaries to develop their ideas into a workable plan [an outline business plan or, for existing businesses, a business development plan]. This plan will take account of each individual's circumstances, needs and perceived barriers and be individually tailored to take them forward. It will also seek to identify additional support services and programmes that will need to be accessed. The beneficiary will receive individual support on a one-to-one basis to develop this plan. The fourth stage of W4W project will be to support the beneficiary in completing their plan. This will include referral to other business support services; advocacy with these and other agencies; support with business research; help identifying finance and other resource support; and other appropriate support for the beneficiary to achieve their aims. Click here to see if you are eligible for the project: Check Post Code Eligibility Type in your postcode and it should come up as eligible to be able to sign up on the project.
Home Services Partners News and Reports Links Women4Women Worksop Training Centre The Team Learndirect Delivery Partner Contact Us