Encouraging entrepreneurship
Recognising
the entrepreneurial potential among businesswomen, organisations across
the world are providing funding options to train them.
As
more women take up leadership roles in the business world,
organisations too are extending their solidarity to women entrepreneurs
by making various funding options available to them. Various non-profit,
private and government agencies are offering scholarships, fellowships
and other forms of grants to aspiring business women for education as
well as seed funds.
Global Fund for Women, for
example, a grant-making foundation, supports various organisations in
India working towards women’s economic empowerment and entrepreneurship.
Sangeeta Chowdhry, programme director, Global Fund for Women Asia
Pacific, explains their philosophy, “We aim to create an environment
where economic development is promoted in an ecologically sustainable
manner and equitably distributed across genders.”
The organisation invests time, expertise and money in local women-led
organisations which further allows local organisations to allocate the
money where it is needed most. “We prioritise investments in women’s
economic initiatives focusing on entrepreneurship, income-generation,
vocational skills
training, financial and economic literacy, management skills,
sustainable agriculture, labour/ land/ inheritance rights, while
enabling women’s participation in decision-making on economic policies
and environmental protection,” she elaborates.
Similarly, the
Asian Women in Business (AWIB), a US based organisation, encourages and
promotes exceptional Asian female students through its scholarship
programme. “AWIB Scholarship Fund awards scholarships to students who
have the attributes to be our next generation leaders, those who have
demonstrated leadership, community service and entrepreneurial skills,”
explains Bonnie Wong, president, Asian Women in Business.
While
the scholarship is open to US citizens or permanent residents in the US,
it is imperative that candidates trace their ancestry to the regions of
Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Laos,
Mongolia, Myanmar, Nepal, Philippines, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Taiwan,
Thailand and Vietnam or Pacific Islander ancestry.
Closer
home, Indian School of Business (ISB) offers the Novartis grant of Rs
4,00,000 to women who have completed their schooling from non ‘A’ class
towns, for their postgraduate courses. VK Menon, senior director,
Careers, Admissions and Financial Aid at the ISB, explains, “To
encourage female Indian students enrolled at our institute, we offer
three need-based scholarships, sponsored by Novartis India, to those
female students who did their schooling from a non-metro city within
India.”
A fewmore funding options for women Zonta
International, another renowned organisation working in the area of
women development, offers the Jane M Klausman Women in Business
Scholarship programme for undergraduate and master’s degrees in business
management.
To help increase the number of women joining the
London Business School, they offer various scholarships to their
meritorious female candidates. Through this, it seeks to encourage an
increase in women considering a management career within the business
sector. Funding options such as the Carlsson Family Scholarship,
Deutsche Bank Women’s Scholarship Programme, Forté Foundation
Fellowships and the Women in Business Club Scholarships are also offered
to women students of business.
