GOOD PRACTICE IN WOMEN’S ENTREPRENEURSHIP TRAINING:

INTERFACING THE SBA ASSESSMENTS

AND ETF GOOD PRACTICE SCORECARD

OLENA BEKH EUROPEAN TRAINING FOUNDATION (ETF)

ROME, ITALY

25-27 NOVEMBER 2014

#WELab2014

#ETFWEInspire

ETF – WHO WE ARE AND WHERE WE STAND?

AGENCY OF THE EUROPEAN UNION

Vision

To make vocational education and training in the partner countries a driver for

lifelong learning and sustainable development, with a special focus on

competitiveness and social cohesion

Mission

To help transition and developing countries to harness the potential of their

human capital through the reform of education, training and labour market

systems in the context of the EU’s external relations policy

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SOME FACTS AND FIGURES

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ESTABLISHED

OPERATIONAL FROM

BASED IN

DIRECTOR

STAFF

BUDGET

PARTNER COUNTRIES

1990 (COUNCIL REG. 1360)

1994

TURIN, ITALY

MADLEN SERBAN

127 (APRIL 2013)

€20.14M (2013)

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European Neighbourhood and Partnership Instrument countries - ENP South: Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Palestine, Syria, Tunisia and Israel

South Eastern Europe: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo*, former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Iceland, Montenegro, Serbia Turkey and Iceland

Central Asia: Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan

European Neighbourhood and Partnership Instrument countries - ENP East: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Republic of Moldova, Ukraine and Russia

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MAIN PARTNERS PRIMARY STAKEHOLDERS

EU institutions

EU Member States

European social partners

Stakeholders from the partner countries

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SECONDARY STAKEHOLDERS

International organisations

Regional and geographic organisations

International development banks

Platforms, networks, NGO’s, education

training providers

FUNCTIONS F1: supporting the EU’s external assistance policies through

input to Commission sector programming and project cycles

F2: supporting partner country capacity building in human

capital development

F3: providing policy analyses through evidence-based

analysis; and

F4: disseminating and exchanging information and experience

in the international community

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THE SBA POLICY ASSESSMENTS IN PARTNER COUNTRIES ……MEASURE WHAT MATTERS!

FROM 2009 – A NEW BATTERY OF WOMEN’S

ENTREPRENEURSHIP INDICATORS WAS INTRODUCED

INTO THE ASSESSMENT FRAMEWORK –

“THE ISTANBUL INDICATORS”

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Human Capital indicators within SBA indicator package SBA Policy Index Dimensions

1. Entrepreneurship education and training

2. Second chance

3. Rules for ‘Think Small First’

4. Responsive public administration

5. SMEs and public procurement

6. Access to finance

7. SME opportunities & EU Single Market

8. Skills & innovation

9. SMEs and environmental concerns

10. SMEs in growth markets

• Lifelong entrepreneurial learning policy

• Non-formal entrepreneurial learning

• Secondary and tertiary education

• Good practice

• University-enterprise cooperation

• Women’s entrepreneurship

• Enterprise training intelligence (data)

• Availability of training,

• Quality assurance

• Start-ups

• Enterprise growth

SMALL BUSINESS ACT FOR EUROPE WORKSHOP ON INDICATORS FOR WOMEN'S ENTREPRENEURSHIP ISTANBUL, 18-19 APRIL 2010

SMALL BUSINESS ACT FOR EUROPE WORKSHOP ON INDICATORS FOR WOMEN'S ENTREPRENEURSHIP ISTANBUL, 18-19 APRIL 2010

SBA WORKSHOP ON INDICATORS FOR WOMEN'S ENTREPRENEURSHIP (ISTANBUL, 18-19 APRIL 2010) - STOCK-TAKING ANALYSIS OF NATIONAL POLICIES

Available:

• National policies for general support of employment/SME development (positive

impact of SBA process);

• Gender strategies or gender-related components are present in the national

policies.

Lacking:

• Comprehensive support to women’s entrepreneurship - no specific government

focus on women

• Economic and social empowerment of women entrepreneurs,

• Individual policy measures for women’s entrepreneurship – but they often remain

just recommendations on paper

• Lack of specific policies translates into the lack of statistical data on women’s

entrepreneurship

SBA WORKSHOP ON INDICATORS FOR WOMEN'S ENTREPRENEURSHIP (ISTANBUL, 18-19 APRIL 2010) - STOCK-TAKING ANALYSIS OF NATIONAL POLICIES

Women businesses are “ghettoized” in a narrow range of activities/sectors:

• They traditionally develop business (trade, shops, service and hospitality industry, solicitors, lawyers, hairdressers, agricultural production, textile, book publishing, craftworks – knitting, dressmaking /sewing, catering, etc).

• Women businesses are limited in growth due to being highly labour intense and linked to their neighborhoods.

Social attitudes and discrimination:

• Women often find themselves paid less for the same jobs.

• Under difficult life circumstances are more willing to take jobs that men refuse.

• Experience problems in moving to the leading/managerial positions and feel lack of support in balancing/reconciliation of family and work-related responsibilities.

• Women often engage in family business activities (without formal employment, registration, etc).

WOMEN’S ENTREPRENEURSHIP INDICATORS 2012!

POLICY SUPPORT FRAMEWORK FOR WOMEN’S ENTREPRENEURSHIP

WOMEN’S ENTREPRENEURSHIP TRAINING AND SUPPORT

FINANCING FOR WOMEN’S ENTREPRENEURSHIP

NATIONAL NETWORKS OF WOMEN ENTREPRENEURS

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SBA policy assessment regions

WBT: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo,

Montenegro, Serbia, FYR Macedonia, Turkey

SEMED: Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Israel,

Lebanon, Morocco, Syria, Tunisia, Pelestine

Eastern Partnership: Armenia, Azerbaijan,

Belarus, Georgia, Moldova, Ukraine

ALL THREE LAST SBA POLICY ASSESSMENT REPORTS FEATURE WOMEN’S ENTREPRENEURSHIP

2012 – EASTERN

PARTNERSHIP

2012 – PRE-

ACCESSION

REGION

2014 – THE

MEDITERRANEAN

MIDDLE EAST AND

NORTH AFRICA

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WE START TO SEE THE IMPACT OF SBA POLICY ASSESSMENTS…

Increased awareness of the economic impact of better participation of women in entrepreneurial activities as a response to social-cultural concerns and traditional approaches to women’s employment

Better understanding by governments and social partners of the data needs and their lack across all SBA assessment countries in the view of raised appreciation of evidence based approaches to policy development,

Growing focus of policy discussions on the ways and approaches to human capital aspects of women’s entrepreneurship and the role of training and mentorship in it,

Augmented attention of stakeholders to the links between sound policy and good practice, and as a result – more sustainable policy partnerships and more effective policy implementation measures allowing practitioners to shape the policies.

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EVOLVING ENGAGEMENT OF ETF INTO THE WOMEN’S ENTREPRENEURSHIP WORK

Development of SBA policy framework on Human Capital

SBA policy assessments

Development of new indicators

on WE

Piloting and revising the assessment instrument

Good Practice project

(includes WE)

Defining our position re: WE Policy

area

Consolidating and

supporting collective

action

What’s best to do

NEXT?

SBA policy assessments

THE POLICY-PRACTICE NEXUS

POLICY

PRACTICE

ETF’S GOOD PRACTICE WORK • Development of the tool kit

for validation (peer review)

of good practice

• Main focus on Human

Capital: Entrepreneurial

Learning and Enterprise

Skills

• Three phases of piloting

and improving the

methodology (2012, 2013

and 2014)

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A COMMUNITY OF GOOD PRACTITIONERS IS GROWING!

ARMENIA

EGYPT

FRANCE

GREECE

HUNGARY

IRELAND

ISRAEL

THE NETHERLANDS

PALESTINE

SWEDEN

TAJIKISTAN

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THE PROJECT TO DATE • CREATING NEW CAPITAL FROM TRAINING PRACTICE

• IMPLICATIONS FOR POLICY MAKING

• USE OF PEER REVIEW METHOD – AND GOING VIRTUAL(!)

• PILOT PROJECT KICK-OFF 2012

• FINALISATION 2014

• LAUNCH 2015

• 3 CALLS SO FAR: YOUTH, WOMEN, SME SKILLS

• IMPROVEMENT RECOMMENDATIONS, ELABORATIONS FOR PEER REVIEW (PREPARATION, PEER REVIEW PROCESS, TOOLS, USE OF PLATFORM)

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THE GOOD PRACTICE ASSESSMENT GRID

FIVE GOOD PRACTICE DIMENSIONS

• TRAINING NEEDS ANALYSIS (RELEVANCE)

• TRAINING DESIGN (TRAINING CONTENTS, PEDAGOGY)

• TRAINING ENVIRONMENT (INFRASTRUCTURE, STAFF)

• M&E AND IMPROVEMENTS (CRITICAL REVIEW)

• MARKETING (DISSEMINATION)

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THE GOOD PRACTICE ASSESSMENT GRID (2)

• EACH DIMENSION COMPRISES 5 LEVELS (INCREASINGLY DEMANDING)

• EACH LEVEL COMPRISES A NUMBER OF CRITERIA (BULLETS)

• PEER REVIEWERS DETERMINE IF CRITERIA ARE SATISFIED (QUESTIONS, EVIDENCE)

• EACH CRITERIA/BULLET HAS A QUANTIFIABLE SCORE

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EXAMPLE…

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THE SCORING SYSTEM SCORING • EACH BULLET HAS A QUANTIFIABLE SCORE

• SCORES ARE EXPONENTIAL: INCREASED VALUES WITH HIGHER LEVELS

• SPECIFIC CALL INTEREST AREA (ACCESS TO FINANCE)

HOW TO SCORE • PEER ALLOCATE SCORES TO EACH LEVEL (ALL DIMENSIONS)

• SCORES ARE SUMMED AND AVERAGED FOR PEER TEAM (CHAIR)

• THRESHOLD: 12 POINTS PER DIMENSION + 60 POINTS IN TOTAL

• GOOD PRACTICE STAR SYSTEM

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THE STARS … AND THE SKY IS THE LIMIT!

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Good Practice Star System • One Star: good practice • Two Stars: very good practice • Three Stars: excellent practice

ETF’S POLICY ANALYSIS AND ADVICE A POLICY BRIEF OF WOMEN’S

ENTREPRENEURSHIP 2013

WOMEN’S ENTREPRENEURSHIP POSITION PAPER

2014

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ETF POSITION PAPER IS DISCUSSING THREE QUESTIONS:

1. Why women’s entrepreneurship is important and why

does it require targeted support?

2. What are the key issues about women’s

entrepreneurship and what would be their specific

support needs?

3. What can be done: how can policy makers and

practitioners engage the challenges and what ETF can

do?

And what is behind the striking figures on WE?

Eastern Europe and Central Asia - 36.6% of business owners are women,

Pre-accession region - as low as 27.5%

Southern and Eastern Mediterranean - bottom out at just 17.2%.

The top performers in female business ownership among the ETF partner countries are:

Kyrgyzstan 60.4%

Moldova 53.1%

Belarus 52.9%

Ukraine 47.1%

Georgia 40.8%

Turkey 40.7%

WE SHOULD BE ABLE TO EXPLAIN SOON WHAT’S BEHIND THESE NUMBERS!

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ACCORDING TO ETF ANALYSIS…

1. WOMEN AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP KEY COMPETENCE

• FOLLOWING TRADITIONAL ROLE MODELS

• WOMEN ARE A MORE “EDUCATED” PART OF A MANKIND BUT LACK SELF-EFFICACY

• OFTEN UNAWARE OF HAVING ENTREPRENEURIAL POTENTIAL

• TRYING TO PUT ON “MAIL” ENTREPRENEURIAL ROLES…

2. MARKET CONDITIONS, INSTITUTIONS AND LEGAL BARRIERS

3. WORK–LIFE BALANCE FACTORS AND CONSIDERATIONS

4. SOCIO-CULTURAL FACTORS EFFECTING WOMEN’S ENTREPRENEURSHIP

• STEREOTYPES, FAMILY AND PEER PERCEPTIONS

• EXISTENCE OF A LARGE INFORMAL ECONOMIES AND CRISIS FACTORS

• DISCRIMINATION IN SOCIETY AS A RESULT OF SOCIAL, CULTURAL OR RELIGIOUS FACTORS

PUTTING ALL ENDS TOGETHER… WHAT DO WE DO? ETF’S APPROACH: Focus on the human capital areas of policy and practice is needed - to

target specific needs of development of women’s entrepreneurial potential

as compared to general SME support measures and instruments.

SELECTED POLICY DIRECTIONS:

• Raising policy awareness

• Access to highly effective and gender sensitive education and training

• Focus on mentoring, coaching and network support

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EXPECTED OUTCOMES OF THE WOMEN’S ENTREPRENEURSHIP LABORATORY

1. New knowledge and reinforced good practice networks to support “entrepreneurial women’s human capital” and strengthened cooperation links between the EU and the ETF partner regions – with focus on Eastern Partner region, involving a broader EU neighbourhood.

2. Increased understanding of the complexity of challenges and variety of policy approaches and practices to develop women’s entrepreneurship “ecosystem”.

3. Increased awareness of the importance of digital competence for women entrepreneurship support agents, in the Eastern Partner region.

4. Recommendations for future programmes and measures at international, regional and national levels to boost women’s entrepreneurship in the Eastern Partnership and increase the impact of the SBA process on the policy and practice in the region.

5. Launching the ETF Good Practice Women’s Entrepreneurship community!

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TO BE CONTINUED! ETF ENTERPRISING PEOPLE

QUESTIONS TO:

NAME: OLENA BEKH

EMAIL: OBE@ETF.EUROPA.EU

PHONE: +39 011 6302233

WEBSITE: WWW.ETF.EUROPA.EU