Santander has partnered with social enterprise Cause4 to launch its 2017 Breakthrough Women in Business Programme in search of the next generation of UK female entrepreneurs.
Mentors will meet with the participants every six weeks to identify the business objectives and share progress. Photo credit: Fotolia
The Breakthrough Women in Business Programme will support 30 entrepreneurs and match them with female mentors who themselves are running successful multi-million pound businesses.
The year-long programme has been developed to ensure that the budding business owners get the support they need to overcome any challenges they face.
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To be eligible for the programme, entrants must be the majority shareholder of a business with an annual turnover of between £250,000 and £6m, have been trading for at least three years, have between five and 40 employees and an idea that is highly scalable and capable of boosting local employment.
Breakthrough Women in Business networking events have already taken place in Exeter, Manchester and Glasgow over the last month with further events planned for Birmingham and London in November. Speakers will include: Justice Williams, MBE, Founder of Women Who, Stephanie Chamberlain, CEO and Founder of Magic Milestones and Michelle Wright, Founder and CEO of Cause4.
Sue Douthwaite, Managing Director, Santander Business, said: “We are delighted to be running the Breakthrough Women in Business Programme in partnership with Cause4. This dedicated initiative is one of the most comprehensive programmes of its type and offers real value to the selected entrepreneurs. The Women and Work Commission found that unleashing women’s full potential could be worth £23 billion a year to the Exchequer, but that only 4 per cent of women are engaged in entrepreneurial activity compared to 9 per cent of men, we are focused on addressing this shortfall.’’
The deadline for mentoring applications is 8 December 2016. Applicants will be told by 23 December 2016 if they have been accepted onto the programme. The mentoring will run between January and June 2017.
Michelle Wright, Chief Executive of Cause4, said: “Female entrepreneurs are a vital part of the UK’s SME business community. This programme from Santander Breakthrough is of huge importance in bringing together female entrepreneurs across the country to share experiences and to learn from each other.”
