Another initiative which aims to solve the women’s networking challenges uncovered in the Rose Review is King’s Entrepreneurship Institute’s Women Entrepreneurs Programme. The programme is open to all King’s women: students, staff and alumni, to increase their exposure to entrepreneurial skills, knowledge sharing and community building. It is a space for passionate women to come together and thrive. The programme provides support including discussion events with industry leaders, practical workshops, networking opportunities, mentoring and a two-day retreat. Aysha and Meg found that the retreat gave them the confidence to apply for King’s20 and commit to excelling their ventures.
The retreat has been specially designed to give women robust insight about idea validation and pitching in order to make a solid application to the King’s20 Accelerator Programme. Alumna Melissa Fearon said: “I felt supported, inspired and empowered throughout the Women’s Entrepreneur Retreat. I learned more in the weekend than I have in a long time. I feel excited about staying in touch with the network and the friendships that have since formed.”
Samantha Tebb, MA student in the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience, who has now joined the King’s20 Accelerator Programme, felt inspired by the mentoring experience the Women’s Entrepreneurship Programme offers: “It’s great to know that there’s a network of women entrepreneurs are out there, willing to back me up with their time, insight and energy.”
The Women’s Entrepreneurship Programme is supported by Santander Universities and is open for applications from passionate women who are thinking of taking the leap to either create or further develop a business venture. So far, it has even become a feeder programme which itself has turned into a feeder programme for King’s20.