Turkish university provides courses for entrepreneurial women

[Mushtaq]

Özyeğin University will provide education programs to 340 female entrepreneurs over three years as part of the American investment bank Goldman Sachs’ “10,000 Women” project’s Turkey leg, according to the school’s board chairman.

Board of Trustees Chairman Hüsnü Özyeğin said he believed the emergence of female entrepreneurs was one of the most important conditions for economic growth in Turkey.

Özyeğin, noting that 70 percent of Turkey’s unemployed are women, said women should be more integrated into the economy.

The “10,000 Women” program is a five-year project by Goldman Sachs to provide 10,000 disadvantaged women around the world with a business and management education. Özyeğin University has undertaken the Turkey branch of the project.

As part of the program, 340 women will be provided free education over three years. This $100,000 global project is being carried out in 22 countries including Brazil, China, India, Egypt, the United States and Afghanistan. Özyeğin met with Goldman Sachs managers in person to bring the program to Turkey. He said the university aimed to educate 79 women in 2010 and 135 in 2011 in the frame of the project.

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[lara]

Sounds great but I think that this is aimed at those women that have already been through the higher education system, so they probably have access to some of the back up systems required for going into business.
Any assistance given to women in realising their own efficancies is commendable but this needs to be parrelled with access to education for those who might come from less well off backgrounds, and also those jobs that are created through this scheme need to be directed at employing more women.
There are fantastic opportunities in Turkey, especially in the manufacturing industries, which are often located outside the big cities and where women would need the support to enable them to work within a mostly male centered ethos, which no certificate can prepare for.