The Women Entrepreneurship Program (WE Program)
GE Money Bank has partnered with the Let’s Go Foundation to establish the Women Entrepreneurship Program, which aims to inspire young Filipino women to be enterprising leaders of society. Since its launch in December 2006, the program has reached more than 10,000 college students, professors, and women entrepreneurs, as part of our initiative together information, which was used to develop interactive teaching tools and workshops to supplement existing curriculum in women’s colleges.
Our employees have spent more than 4,000 manhours in the program, and met with different stakeholders to plan and roll-out a sustainable program to help ensure the success of women entrepreneurship in the Philippines. Starting from increasing awareness and inspiring students to consider entrepreneurship as an option after graduation from college, the program also includes tools that will equip women with the basics of running their business.
Eric Montelibano, Communications Leader, said, “We are committed to provide entrepreneurship education to women. Through the initiatives of the WE Program, we aim to inspire and cultivate the entrepreneurial spirit among women.”
Accomplishments
Women Entrepreneurship Research
The WE Program conducted research with female college students from the Consortium of Women’s Colleges (CWC) and successful women entrepreneur to determine the traits, attitudes, and educational needs of women. The results revealed the knowledge and skills young, business-minded women need in order to pursue successful entrepreneurial careers. The results of the research formed part of the basis in developing an interactive teaching tool to address the basic gaps needed in practicing entrepreneurship.
Teaching Tool Development
Funance, or fun in finance, a teaching tool composed of board games, inspirational videos and actual case studies, was designed to make the learning of Finance more fun and interesting. Funance orients students with financial knowledge on the income statement, balance sheet, and cash flow which are basics in running a business.
Let’s Go Foundation has been developing Funance with the help of the Consortium of Women Colleges (CWC) students, where several simulation exercises have been conducted on the students, helping in the improvement and development of the teaching tool. The program will be rolled out in women colleges in October of 2008.
Interactive Website
A dedicated website (www.womenentrepreneurship.org) was established to provide a resource to help students and entrepreneurs with information that would help their businesses. The website features revealing studies done on women entrepreneurs, as well as success stories and tips on how to manage a business.
It also features forums, where students, mothers, entrepreneurs and women curious about starting their own business can exchange ideas, share their experiences, talk about their passions and inspirations or simply provide support for each other.
The future of the WE Program
The WE Program will pilot the Funance teaching tool to 4 schools from CWC, namely – Assumption College, College of the Holy Spirit, Miriam College, and St. Scholastica’s College. The results of the pilot will be used for improvements and will be made available for other colleges, universities, and NGOs.
The program is designed to be sustainable and we will help ensure the success of women entrepreneurship in the Philippines in the next phases of the program. Together with the Let’s Go Foundation, GE Money Bank is committed to provide a significant input to the women’s sector, to further develop financial education to college students and women entrepreneurs, and to assist in the financial empowerment for women.