IWD: Record numbers upskilling with TAFE NSW Women in Business program
More than 10,000 female entrepreneurs haves so far registered to upskill through TAFE NSW’s Women in Business program.
NSW
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Female entrepreneurs are increasingly expanding their businesses and upskilling through the pandemic – with a record number registering for online learning courses.
More than ten thousand women have taken up TAFE NSW’s Women in Business program – with a major spike in the past 12 months.
Skills and Tertiary Education Minister Geoff Lee said women were using the training courses to navigate their businesses through COVID-19.
“We’ve committed to 5,500 registrations over four years – and the program has reached almost double that number in just over 12 months,” Mr Lee said.
“Launching prior to COVID-19 as part of the NSW Women’s Strategy 2018 – 2022, the program has become a business lifeline for thousands of women.
“It’s been a valuable resource providing online training, networking and advice from Australia’s leading entrepreneurs from any location, at any time, as women need it.”
Most popular areas for learning included marketing, business planning, financial planning, wellbeing and learning how to apply for grants.
Kings Langley business owner Bianca Santucci runs a pet care services business called Barking with Bianca.
Ms Santucci initially provided pet minding and dog walking services but saw a huge increase in demand for obedience training in the pandemic.
She also works with elderly clients who are unable to care for their pets.
“It all just grew, and through COVID, people bought pets and a lot of these people were first time owners,” the 32-year-old said.
“I also started looking into things like extra coursed and marketing information that could help me. I did the course and that helped get more clients on board.”
Sydney Business Chamber boss Katherine O’Regan said the business community would benefit from more collaborations with the research and development sector.
“We need to strengthen our research and development capacity and that collaboration between business and universities and education institutes to ensure the entrepreneurial expertise comes in,” she said.
“R & D is a general weakness in Australia over the rest of the world so it’s fantastic to foster talent through universities and TAFE.”
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Originally published as IWD: Record numbers upskilling with TAFE NSW Women in Business program
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