Entrepreneurship is not a preferred career option for most of the young generation as it implies uncertainty compared to a guaranteed pay check irrespective of its value. Focused education with the promotion of success stories, motivational speeches and the support of successful businesswomen and businessmen was found to be an effective tool to generate more entrepreneurs.
In this regard, Hudson Egypt created an initiative to develop 100 women entrepreneurs yearly with a special focus in Upper Egypt. This initiative will be addressed during the 2015 World of a Woman Conference “Inspiring Change” that will take place on 18-19 November, 2015, at the Royal Maxim Palace Kempinski Hotel in New Cairo.
The Hudson Egypt initiative aims to contribute to Egypt’s competitiveness and to accelerate regional economic growth by promoting the entrepreneurial mindset of young women, increasing their number effectively. Additionally, the programme will focus on fostering the attitudes and skills of young women toward self-employment while developing personal qualities including creativity, responsibility, risk-taking, problem-solving, team-work and relevant business competencies on how to create and run an enterprise.
The programme will identify 100 young women aged 21-35 who are inspired by self-employment and using a labour intensive innovative business model for the greater good. Selected entrepreneurs will be enrolled in a well-structured six-month development programme to gear themselves with necessary knowledge, skills and experience to enter the entrepreneurship world steadily with confidence.
The programme further aims to support start-ups from young women, and to promote more collaboration and engagement between them across Egypt. This competition is considered the spark to start serial activities for shaping a better future for young women entrepreneurs. The competition will take place on the 10 October at the Greek campus in the American University in Cairo (AUC) and over 800 start-ups and experienced entrepreneurs will attend the event.
Media consultant for Hudson Egypt, Nagwa El-Mehey, said that a press conference will take place at 9am, just before the official opening of the The Young Women Entrepreneurs Development Program (YWED-P) event. All stakeholders including NGO’s, sponsors, media partners, and other media representatives, will be equally invited.
Over 7,000 applications were received and the names of the successful candidates were released on 29 September. The 100 selected candidates for the programme were identified using certain criteria and the final decision is up to eight judges who have extensive experience and knowledge in the field of entrepreneurship namely Menna AbdelRahman General Manager- Cairo Angles; Dina El Mofty Executive Director- Injaz Egypt; Con O’Donnell Serial Entrepreneur, Rise Up; Ossama Suleiman Head of Enterprise Marketing- Tedata; Khaled Mokhtar Programme Manager of technical innovation- Etisalat; ; Heba Gamal Managing Director- Endeavor Egypt; Dalia Wahba Managing Partner, CID Consulting; Jackie Kameel, Managing Director, Nahdet El-Mahrousa; Dr. Sherief Waly Managing Director of Pharmamix
The selected 100 Innovation Entrepreneurs will be granted the following benefits:
- 45 training days in 13 elements designed for start-up of entrepreneurs.
- Five motivation presentations by acknowledged and achieved business Women/Entrepreneurs
- One year access to One-to-One Advisory Program ( Legal, Accounting, Marketing &Sales and Business planning)
- Assistance to bridge the gap between entrepreneurs, corporations, SME’s & financial institutions.
- Opportunity to share relevant media coverage via the dedicated Hudson Egypt website newsletter or social media
- Invitation to an Innovation Entrepreneurs graduation lunch for individuals who successfully completed the programme. The graduation lunch will be attended by donors, NGO’s and financial institutes (banks, investors, and donors) to enable possible finance for rewarding business ideas.
- Each entrepreneur will be offered a lap-top loaded with all necessary applications to support their business once they successfully completed the 13 training courses. Hudson Egypt is currently negotiating with leading computer suppliers to provide the required 100 lap-top units as part of their CSR budget.
- Three of the highly ranked Entrepreneurs will be invited to attend the coming world of a women conference, and will be given the opportunity to effectively participate in the discussions and mini seminars delivered during the event.
YWED-P project manager Walid El Gendy commented that the 13 scheduled entrepreneur training courses will take place at six major cities in Egypt namely, Cairo, Alexandria Minya, Assuit, Sohag and Aswan simultaneously spanned over four months. The training courses will be delivered in Arabic and covers the concept of entrepreneurship, work and life skills while essentially addressing topics on how to establish and manage a new business.
Conference and Advisory Committee Chairman Abdelaziz M. Salah Eldin commented that the company realises the constraints and feels that more efforts need to be done, not only by the government, but also by women activists, NGO’s women’s associations and councils, leading corporation, women/men activists to support the conference and its ambitious initiative to achieve the desired outcomes and to be seen as a model to support the thousands of women entrepreneurs in Egypt to participate positively in achieving balance and well-being of the community.
He added that Egypt would not get up and recover unless efforts are put together to train, coach and mentor conscious generation of young entrepreneurs, men and women who are willing to work striving for success and equally motivated and full of hope that there is light at the end of the tunnel.
