Around the world, one in five women have the intention to start a business – and many are successful entrepreneurs.

Women run successful enterprises, yet persistent gendered inequalities continue to create major disparities in opportunities to start and grow a business. In general, their businesses tend to be smaller than those run by men, are concentrated in sectors with limited potential for value addition and are over-represented in the informal economy. These challenges are compounded by women’s care responsibilities, which create additional pressure on women entrepreneurs’ time, workload and wellbeing, as well as by unfavourable institutional environments that can result in uneven access to land and decision-making roles, and inadequate social protection coverage.

Women and men entrepreneurs can encounter similar challenges in their economic activities; however, women are faced with an additional set of gender-based barriers that limit their access to resources and opportunities.

The ILO (International Labour Organisation) WED Programme strives to close the gap in female entrepreneurship. 

The course is designed for national, provincial and regional tourism offices as well as for people working in the areas of employment strategies, gender equality, local and rural development, business development support services such as coaching, mentoring, consultancies, management training etc.

The ILO-WED programme promotes and applies tested tools and approaches to develop holistic interventions to support women’s entrepreneurship across three key areas:

• Enabling Environment for Women’s Entrepreneurship Development : ILO-WED works to address some of the systemic constraints that women entrepreneurs encounter by understanding and creating the conditions for their improved access to resources and opportunities.
• Financial and Business Development Services : ILO-WED seeks to make service provision for entrepreneurs more gender-sensitive, accessible, and relevant for women clients, while supporting service providers to adopt more sustainable business models.
• Training and Post-Training Support for Women Entrepreneurs : ILO-WED facilitates the delivery of tailored trainings and post-training programmes that improve women’s business management, interpersonal and financial skills. The trainings have been developed by ILO over the years, and tried, tested and adapted to specific country contexts while building and maintaining a network of highly committed trainers.

Training Schedule

WED Tourism training oportunities available on request.

There are 6 online classes, 3 self-guided eLearning units and one final assignment in this programme and the total time investment is a minimum of 25 hours.

Participants need to have access to the Internet by using a Laptop, Desktop Computer, Table or Smartphone.

Fees

A registration fee of ZAR 1600 per participant is due on invoice after the application has been approved. Members of the Africa Adventure Tourism Network will receive a 10% discount on the registration fee.

Withdrawal, Cancellation and Refund Policy

• 14 days or more prior to the start date of the course: No penalty, 100% refund of amount paid less applicable bank charges
• 8 to 13 days prior to the start date of the course: Penalty of 50% of course price, refund of residual amount paid (if any) less applicable bank charges
• 7 days or less prior to the start date of the course: Penalty of 100% of course price, e.g. no refund.

Registration

Please send us an email to learn@africa-adventure.academy to inquire about registration.

Certificate

A Certificate of Completion is issued upon successful completion of the WED training programme and the submission of the WED Evaluation Questionnaire. Important: A minimum of 80% participation in the online learning classes and the submission of the final assignment is required to qualify for the certificate.

The certificate is digital and will be issued by the Africa Adventure Academy. This course is not registered with South Africa's NQF scheme and therefore you will not qualify to earn any points at the NQF.