Advancing Women in Agri-Food Rural Environments (AWARE): Training and Mentoring Women Entrepreneurs in Europe’s Agri Food sector Erasmus Project

Project Title

Advancing Women in Agri-Food Rural Environments (AWARE): Training and Mentoring Women Entrepreneurs in Europe’s Agri Food sector

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships for vocational education and training

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2020

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Rural development and urbanisation; Entrepreneurial learning – entrepreneurship education; Inclusion – equity

Project Summary

The main objective of this project is to ensure women in rural communities and in particular in the agri-food sector are socially included. The consortium aim to achieve this by enabling women entrepreneurs in the agri-food sector to access specifically designed entrepreneurial work based training, supportive resources and mentorship. It is noted at EU policy level that “through training and skills development, rural girls and women can play a much greater role in the development of green food and agricultural value chains, both as current and future agricultural workers and entrepreneurs”. Preliminary research carried out by the consortium indicated that women entrepreneurs are underrepresented in the Agri-Food sector with male entrepreneurs dominating approximately 70% of the field. This business sector has increased for women in the past decade and now needs the support to back it (Ward et al, 2019). The European Commission has identified that ‘when establishing and running a business women face more difficulties than men mainly in access to finance, training, networking and in reconciling family commitments’. This research data fed into the development of the proposed outputs. The project is a follow on project to Educate to Innovate (2018-1-IE01-KA202-038791) also led by the lead partners, GMIT. The Educate to Innovate project team carried out a survey with 109 female food entrepreneurs across partner countries to gain an understanding of the barriers and challenges faced by females in the agri-food sector. The collated results of the survey informed the needs analysis developed for this project which identified the need to provide easy access to specific entrepreneurial training for women in the Agri-Food sector together with the need for women to be able to access business mentors. Mentorship is essential to the growth of any individual. For women, successful mentoring demonstrated increased retention rates and more success in obtaining promotions for those who have mentors. Additionally, successful mentoring of women has been shown to help minimize feelings of isolation and contribute to increased self-confidence and work engagement (Dutta et al., 2011) (Varkey et al., 2012). Previous studies have shown that women consider mentoring more important than men. They also show a significantly greater improvement in professional development from mentoring, however, women are less likely to have mentors or receive formal mentorship early in their careers compared with men (Cross et al., 2019).It is for that reason the consortium decided to incorporate a research element to the project and investigate the impact mentorship can have on sustaining the growth of women entrepreneurs in the sector.

Supporting the growth of women entrepreneurs in this evolving sector is the key focus of this project which will in turn contribute to closing the gender gap in entrepreneurship and result in creating innovative agricultural and food activities in rural European areas. Additionally the consortium want to raise awareness of the importance of supporting women entrepreneurs in this sector by attracting more business mentors to the sector and encouraging more women entrepreneurs to engage with mentors. Research has indicated that women are more inclined to avail and engage with mentorship than their male counterparts. In addition to increased business development skills, women find mentorship strong support, a networking opportunity, a way of feeling socially included which has been reported to help replenish the feeling of isolation, fear and lack of confidence often experienced by women in this male dominated sector.

The project methodology and activities have been designed to specifically meet the growth needs of our target audiences. The consortium aim to apply mixed methods utilising a combination of both qualitative and quantitative methods throughout the project. 5 intellectual outputs will be produced focusing on providing agri-food women entrepreneurs with access to specifically designed entrepreneurship training and mentorship. 2 LTTAs are scheduled to ensure the design, content and functionality of the project outputs are relevant for the intended audience. 6 multiplier events are planned to ensure wide dissemination of the project outcomes and outputs. Over 200 participants will engage in these activities that will include agri-food women entrepreneurs, mentors, mentees, VET educators, researchers, wider agri community. The outputs will significantly support innovation and entrepreneurship for women in the Agri-Food sector by providing access to a training course designed by academia, enterprise and specifically female/male entrepreneurs in the agri food sector. The research report will produce current data and analysis of the importance of business mentors for females in this sector with the other outputs contributing to supporting women entrepreneurship in Europe’s agri-food sector.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 323145 Eur

Project Coordinator

GALWAY-MAYO INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY & Country: IE

Project Partners

• PROPEL Europe
• UNIVERSITY OF BEDFORDSHIRE
• Macra na Feirme
• The Polish Farm Advisory and Training Centre not-for-profit Sp. z o. o.
• CONFEDERAZIONE ITALIANA AGRICOLTORI TOSCANA