The Employment and Training Corporation has launched a part-EU funded project, “Promoting the Woman Entrepreneurs Culture” yesterday.

Introducing the scheme, project leader Philippe Vancell said the ETC planned to introduce the programme with a group of 10 to 15 women on 17 June, while a similar-sized group would begin the course at a later stage.

The project will be open to women from all walks of life, although unemployed women will be given precedence and they will be trained in a range of areas – law, finance, planning, basic skills and marketing.

The objectives of the project are to promote an entrepreneurial culture among women and to increase the rate of women starting and managing their own business.

According to various Labour Force Surveys undertaken by the National Statistics Office, the rate of self-employed women is very low, when compared to the situation in other countries.

This might suggest that women are less likely than men to become entrepreneurs, or take leadership and decision-making roles in organisations.

The proposed Business Skills Programme as part of the project aims to encourage women to consider the option of setting up their own business and at the same time, create more and better jobs for women in micro and small enterprises.

Edwin Vassallo, Parliamentary Secretary for Small Businesses and the Self-Employed, said it was estimated that the project would cost about Lm49,627. While 75 per cent of the project would be financed by the European Social Fund, the Maltese government would fork out the rest of the money.

Gozitan participants and trainers will be given a transport allowance during the course of the training, while ETC has also planned to allocate funds for childcare costs.

The project will consist of 188 hours of morning training classes four times a week. At the end of the course, 12 hours will be dedicated to project work.

Further information on the project as well as application forms may be downloaded from the European Union Projects section at the ETC website: www.etc.gov.mt.

Mr Vassallo said that while the government was giving a lot of importance to the work carried out by woman entrepreneurs working within family businesses, more initiatives would ensure that more women became entrepreneurs, which would translate into the generation of more employment opportunities.

“Economic growth in the country means that more woman entrepreneurs are needed and projects such as this one are aimed at instilling an entrepreneurial mentality among all the country’s stakeholders,” said Mr Vassallo.