19.03.07
Women supported on their way up business ladder

The first people to take part in an exciting new training project aimed at encouraging more women in Cornwall into senior levels in business have just completed their course.

SMART Women is a £750,000 project run by Cornwall College and has received Objective One European Social Fund (ESF) and Learning and Skills Council investment. The project was set up to tackle the under representation of women working at senior level and in management roles in businesses in Cornwall. It includes formal management training and personal development. There is also an Institute of Directors course on offer with six full days of high level management training.

Of the first 41 participants (just one did not complete the full course) 31 were working, either self employed or for someone else, and ten were not working – including seven mothers wanting to return to work. Fifteen of the women already had their own businesses and were keen to increase their management skills.

The women who completed the course celebrated with an event entitled 'Image Matters' at Chantek, in Truro on Thursday (March 15th). At the event expert Lizzie Fox from Beautiful People explained how to present yourself in different business situations and how being confident of your image is fundamental to success.

Carleen Kelemen, Director of the Objective One Partnership, is patron of the SMART Women project. She said: "The sheer variety of women who participated in this first SMART Women course highlights what talent we have on our doorsteps in Cornwall. This project encourages women to aim higher by removing barriers, increasing confidence and supplying valuable business advice and support."

Jennifer Atherton, SMART Women Programme Manager, said: "The SMART Women Project is working with each individual to develop their business, management and confidence skills and we have had some great feedback about both the personal development and management training aspects of this programme. We are currently seeking women with unique ideas, skills and personalities for our next courses, which begin after Easter in Camborne and St Austell."

Jessica Milln has three sons and for the past three years has been working from her St Austell home as a freelance writer for print. Since completing the SMART Women course she has started a website development business and has already started work on two new contracts.

She said: "I also have been contracted by 'Mother & Baby' Magazine to project manage the selection and testing of more than 250 baby products for the Mother & Baby Annual Awards, write annual feedback reports for each year's process, and develop a brief for a Mother & Baby Magazine shopping website.

"I decided to join the course because, to date, I had taken on such a incongruent assortment of different work commissions, I was having difficulty identifying my strengths and working out in what directions I was most interested in seeking further contracts.

"I have been given an outline introduction to all the things I need to know for setting myself up as a business. This has given me a much better defined sense of purpose, direction and a goal. The course tutors have helped me to define what it is that I do in a way that sounds logically and marketable.

"The course has also been brilliant in many ways that I had not initially anticipated. I had believed that there has been some unwritten diktat to mothers that offering working hours that are limited by the school day and children's bed times are of less significant value than the ability to work a straight eight hour day. Previously I had considered my business ambitions were to be forever limited by my role as a mother and all I did was earn 'pin money' by doing whatever work I was contracted to do. Now I am able to see that I can market all of my skills in a practical way, my domestic life doesn't have to limit the value of my working one, and I can legitimately seek contracts that will enable to develop myself as a business specialist.

"The staff and all the other women on the course have all been extremely, and equally, helpful and encouraging. They have provided a non-judgemental, non-competitive sounding board for all my fears and ideas. At the same time, it has been a privilege to share the business dreams of other women. I have gained new friends and a new network of support and opportunities."

Lorraine Moore owns a plant nursery, in Camborne, and grows her own lavender. Since the course she has begun researching and developing new products.

She said: "The course has opened up new avenues through contacts and possibilities not only locally but world-wide. I have an original new Cornish line for my business for which I have two models and, have more recently, taken this idea on to yet another new innovative Cornish line. My future map is to pursue these new ventures and promote their 'Cornishness' in county and via my website (still building).

"I hope that those of us who were in the first SMART cohort keep in touch as we have become friends. The course was an experience for which I am grateful to have been one of the chosen participants."

For further information contact Clare Morgan, Media Relations Manager for the Objective One Partnership Office on 01872 223439 or email cmorgan@cornwall.gov.uk.

The Objective One Programme for Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly has invested in the SMART Women Project through the European Social Fund (ESF).

Editor's notes:

Clare Morgan
Media Relations Manager
Objective One Partnership Office
Castle House
Pydar Street
Truro TR1 2UD
Mobile: 07973 813647
Telephone: 01872 223439

cmorgan@cornwall.gov.uk

back to top