‘Educate to Innovate Developing and Sustaining Female Food Entrepreneurs’ Project Event
GMIT is delighted to announce details of the final series of events for the ‘Educate to Innovate: Developing and Sustaining Female Food Entrepreneurs’ Erasmus+-funded project. The event will be an all around the celebration of Female Food Entrepreneurs across Europe. It will take place virtually on Monday 14th of June from 10.00-12.30 IST (Ireland) and is free to attend. In ‘Educate to Innovate’ project GMIT lead in partnership with the Baltic Education Technology Institute (BETI) in Lithuania, The Centre for Promoting Lifelong Learning (CPIP) in Romania, Agricultural Italian Confederation (CIA) in Toscana, and The Polish Farm Advisory and Training Centre (PFA) in Poland.
The project which is led by Dr Lisa Ryan (Head of the Department of Sport, Exercise and Nutrition) launched in December 2018, aiming to develop and sustain female food entrepreneurs (FFEs) across Europe. The project concept originated from previous work carried out by Dr Ryan and her team which highlighted that females were grossly underrepresented in Europe’s Agri-Food sector, and required specific supports and resources to grow and develop their businesses. The project provides Vocational Education and Training (VET) educators with the knowledge and resources required to develop training courses specifically tailored to meet and overcome the barriers faced by females. The project introduces female specific entrepreneurial training with a key focus on peer led learning and mentorship; in summary entrepreneurs helping to develop entrepreneurs.
Throughout the project the consortium carried out several activities, international seminars and training activities that resulted in the development of two project outputs designed to connect, support and sustain the growth of European FFEs. Output one is a training guide for VET providers on delivering work-based, peer led entrepreneurial training for female food entrepreneurs in the agri-food sector. The second output is an online resource platform, which aims to provide European FFEs with resources, training, advice and collaborative opportunities. It is essentially a ‘one stop shop’ to help sustain the growth of females in the Agri-Food sector. All of which will be shared during this wonderful event.
This event will be an interactive morning and will serve as a unique opportunity for attendees to connect with other European FFEs, farmers and food producers and to learn more about how the Educate to Innovate project and its outputs will help to support the growth of new/existing food businesses and promote Female Food Entrepreneurs.
There will be a panel of international speakers including a range of successful female food entrepreneurs from all different backgrounds across Europe, and all with different stories who will provide information, support and guidance on the journey of becoming a Food Entrepreneur. These key speakers will discuss their experiences of being a female food entrepreneur during a worldwide pandemic, and what they feel and hope the world will look like post-Covid for women in food. We will hear of the digital transformation taking place for food entrepreneurs and how technology can be leveraged to promote, grow and sustain their businesses into the future. The Breakout rooms will allow for virtual networking, whilst sharing knowledge and allowing for questions allowing attendees to engage in group conversation.
The event is open to all those involved or interested in the Agri-Food sector and who wish to contribute to the promotion of growing and supporting Female Food Entrepreneurs. Whilst we can’t bring women together in our usual way, this virtual event gives us the opportunity to have more attendees than ever before!
If you are a female farmer or food producer, a female involved in the food sector in some capacity or just love food, and to register for a free place at the event please visit:
For any queries, please contact: emma.judge@gmit.ie or emma.finnegan@gmit.ie
For more information on this project, please visit https://nurtureher.eu/