Online Event for Supporting Women Entrepreneurs in Agri-food Sector (AWARE)
University of Bedfordshire Business School hosted a three-day online event for Supporting Women Entrepreneurs in Agri-food Sector (AWARE) from 5th to 7th October 2021.
The AWARE project aims to support the growth of women entrepreneurs in the Agri-Food sector across Europe. It contributes to achieving social inclusion for this targeted group and closing the gender gap in agri-food entrepreneurship. The project is funded by EU ERASMUS + programme of KA202 Strategic Partnerships for vocational education and training and involves six partners: Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology (Lead partner, Ireland), University of Bedfordshire (UK), Confederazione Italiana Agricoltori Toscana (Italy), PROPEL Europe (Belgium), the Polish Farm Advisory and Training Centre, and Macra na Feirme (Ireland).
The event was organised by the AWARE project team in the business school led by Professor Yanqing Duan. The event brought key stakeholders together including women entrepreneurs in agri-food sector from UK, Ireland, Poland, and Italy; leading entrepreneurship education experts, HEI entrepreneurship course leaders in two UK universities, and representatives of farmers associations and communities. The participants provided their views on challenges faced by women entrepreneurs in agri-food sector and shared their experience and feedback on training needs and support. The outcome of the event provided the foundation for the project team to develop a well informed and relevant course curriculum and training materials, which in turn, will benefit and support the growth of agri-food women entrepreneurs across Europe.
The agenda of the event
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Day 1: Introduction, review and evaluation of current entrepreneurship curriculum and resources for AWARE project. 10:00 Introduction: UoB to present and outline the aim and objectives of LTTA1, IO1 and IO2. 10:30 – 12:30 Presentations: GMIT and UoB presentation on relevant and existing curricula and training methods for IO1 and IO2.
14:00 -16:00 Focus group discussion: Participants to meet with the UK entrepreneurship course leaders and tutors and to discuss barriers faced by women in the Agri-Food sector, evaluate information presented, and provide suggestions as to the most appropriate methods/ materials to use for AWARE curriculum design and training materials development. |
Day 2: Online live event on addressing challenges and supporting women entrepreneurs in Agri-food sector
9:30 – 12:30 Guest speakers and Online Q&A. Female entrepreneurs Speaker in a diverse businesses & stages from agri-food sector to present and discuss on how they deal with the challenges they face in the food sector, lesson learned, training received, support needed, views on using mentoring and coaching services, etc. Online Q&A with mentor/ coaching experts, female entrepreneurs, entrepreneurship educators, etc. 9:30 – Introduction to AWARE project. 9:45 – Presentation by Winifred Soribe, PhD researcher, University of Bedfordshire 10:00 – Julia Brightman, Business Owner of Creme Brew Lait, UK, www.cremebrewlait.co.uk 10:30 – Magdalena Świderska, Poland Gospodarstwo Agroturystyczne “Malinówka” www.facebook.com/malinowkapl 11:00- Elena Salviucci, Cantina Campotondo farm, Italy, www.cantinacampotondo.it 11:30 - Aisling Flanagan, Velvet Cloud, Ireland https://velvetcloud.ie 12:00 – Sarah Alder, Kitchen Titbits, UK 14:00 – 15:00 A talk by Prof Paul Burns on "The entrepreneurial mindset" and a recorded conversation with Prof Paul Burns on barrier and challenges faced by women entrepreneurs in agri-food sector and how to address them. 15:00 – 16:00 – Round table discussion. Based on women entrepreneurs speech and Q&A to discuss the implications for AWARE project curriculum and mentoring scheme. |
Day 3: Developing relevant training resources and support schemes for advancing women entrepreneurs in Agri-food sector 9:30 – 10:00 Guest speaker and Q&A- Empowering female food entrepreneurs and mentoring and coaching - Maria Staunton Manager of the EMPOWER female Entrepreneurship Programme. 10:00-11:00 Guest speakers and Q&A “How to address equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) in curriculum design and course development” (provision title) by Dr. Christina Schwabenland 11:00-12:00 – Guest speaker “teaching entrepreneurship” by the leading entrepreneurship education and training expert Professor Paul Burns and Interview with Paul on developing effective training resources and mentoring schemes for AWARE project. 14:00 – 16:00 Round table discussion: to present existing resources and learning tools available in partner countries, evaluate the existing materials and delivery methods, confirm timeline and partner tasks/responsibilities 14:00 – Entrepreneurship education in Coventry University, Dr, Sabrina Vieth. Introduction to proposed AWARE project curriculum and modules. To facilitate a virtual session, this can be performed with breakout room sessions relevant to each partner country. |
Professor Yanqing Duan concluded:
"The event has brought together the key stakeholders to address challenges and barriers faced by Agri-food entrepreneurs by developing relevant training and mentoring support schemes. The participants have enjoyed the interesting talks and lively discussions in a range of live sessions during this three-day event.
The event was a huge success with very positive feedback from all the participants involved in the event. The achievements have certainly exceeded our expectation. Many thanks to the support of our external speakers, partners, and, especially, the UoB project team members, Yongmei Bentley, Manpreet Dhillon, Patricia Wilson and Winifred Soribe."
For more information about the AWARE project please visit:
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