RBS recently announced some very exciting news – they’ve created a new funding pot of £1.5million to help female entrepreneurs over the next 3 years. The funding pot will provide grants of up to £50,000 for organisations that inspire women into enterprise. Their aim is to inspire and enable 20,000 women to explore and unlock their entrepreneurial potential by 2015.
It’s a very exciting initiative! Go to http://www.inspiringenterprise.rbs.com/inspiring-women to find out more about it. The first funding round for the grants closes on the 2nd November, so if you think you could be in with a chance check it out soon!
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More about this initiative. . .
The RBS Group ‘Women in Enterprise: a different perspective’ report published this week, shows that since the early 1970’s, the rate of self-employment amongst women has consistently remained half that of men. In 2011, just over 10% of men were in the early stages of setting up a business, compared with only 5% of women. The research also indicates that, while women make up 48% of the working population, they make up only 26% of the self-employed and just 17% of business owners.
To encourage more women, in more communities, to be inspired to be entrepreneurs, RBS is today launching a new £1.5million ‘Inspiring Women in Enterprise’ funding pot.
The funding of £500,000 per annum, over three years, will be available through grants for organisations with dedicated enterprise programmes working to enhance the role of women in enterprise. With support from this funding, RBS is making a commitment to inspire and enable 20,000 women to explore and unlock their enterprise potential by the end of 2015. This 20,000 is in addition to the women in business who we support every day as our customers.
Since 2007 RBS has provided tailored specialist support and advice for women-led businesses through dedicated Women in Business Ambassadors, who are in the course of being trained and accredited by Chartered Banker and everywoman. This commitment, announced today, is part of the wider RBS Group Inspiring Enterprise initiative. Additional effort is being focused on three groups which RBS believes could play a stronger role in the entrepreneurial economy: women, youth (Inspiring Youth Enterprise launched on the 8th October) and social enterprises.
Chris Sullivan, CEO of Corporate Banking at RBS commented: “A gap between the numbers of male and female entrepreneurs still exists and we are doing all we can as a bank to close it down. The research launched today goes some way in illustrating the perceived barriers to women and I hope that this RBS Inspiring Women in Enterprise funding helps to provide support where it is most needed and encourages more women to consider starting their own business.”
