Tillväxtverket, the Swedish Agency for Economic and Regional Growth, is the national coordinator for the ambassadors for women´s entrepreneurship. The Swedish Agency for Economic and Regional Growth (Tillväxtverket) was formed on 1 April 2009. The Agency strives for the creation and expansion of enterprise and for a sustainable and competitive business community throughout Sweden. The Agency has taken over the activities previously carried out by Nutek and the Swedish Rural Development Agency (Glesbygdsverket) as well as the Swedish Consumer Agency’s (Konsumentverket) assignments within commercial and public service.
More information: http://www.tillvaxtverket.se
Sweden needs to face up to a number of important challenges:
- We need more new enterprises. The proportion of entrepreneurs in Sweden is low in comparison with other EU member states.
- We need more growing enterprises. Few enterprises are growing in size and contributing to growth and employment.
- We need more strong regions. Many Swedish regions have a low rate of growth compared with the rest of Europe.
Women´s entrepreneurship
More women entrepreneurs in Sweden would mean a great deal for the economic growth and employment in Sweden.
- In Sweden about 25 per cent of all businesses are run by women.
- Women accounted for about 32 per cent of the start-ups in 2008.
Programme to promote women´s entrepreneurship
The swedish Government has given the Swedish Agency for Economic and Regional Growth the mission to implement and coordinate a national programme to promote women´s entrepreneurship. The programme started in September 2007 and consists of actions in four areas:
1. Information, business advice and business development
2. Actions regarding transfer of business, entrepreneurship amongst women at universities and a mentor programme
3. Development of financing opportunities
4. Attitudes and role models including facts and statistics and ambassadors for women´s entrepreneurship
Promoting women´s entrepreneurship focuses on making visible, making possible and providing the tools.
- Providing the tools for women entrepreneurs who want to run and develop companies, through activities such as business development, advice and innovation financing. To-date, it is estimated that slightly more than 12,500 women have been involved in just over 300 projects that offer business development. ALMI has granted innovation financing to slightly more than 200 projects run by women.
- Making it more possible for women entrepreneurs to operate, take over and develop companies now and in the future, through activities such as mentorship, business transfer, business angel networks, gendertrained advisors and entrepreneurship projects among students. Since the beginning, nearly 200 new companies have been established by women who study at university.
- Making women’s entrepreneurship more visible by continuing to work with role models and the attitudes that exist regarding women who run companies and women’s entrepreneurship. The Government’s ambassadors for women’s entrepreneurship are especially important as role models – they reflect the entire range of women’s entrepreneurship. Visibility to women’s entrepreneurship in facts, statistics and the media, and generally developing the knowledge of women’s entrepreneurship.
Find out more about the programme: http://publikationer.tillvaxtverket.se/ProductView.aspx?id=1290
Facts and statistics about women´s and men´s entrepreneurship in Sweden: http://publikationer.tillvaxtverket.se/ProductView.aspx?ID=1279&pageIndex=0
880 ambassadors for Women´s Entrepreneurship
The Swedish Government has commissioned the Swedish Agency for Economic and Regional Growth, to coordinate a national network of women entrepreneurs. 880 women entrepreneurs are since March 26, 2008 appointed ambassadors for Women´s Entrepreneurship, and very important in making women´s entrepreneurship more visible. The interest for taking part in the project was impressive: more than 1 600 women entrepreneurs were interested in becoming ambassadors.
The aim is to encourage women and girls to consider running av company as a career option. As most people still think of a man when picturing a business owner or an entrepreneur, the ambassadors also serve as role models for other women. In doing so they contribute to increase the knowledge of enterprising and help rising the interest of the media for women´s entrepreneurship.
An ambassdor has agreed to perform four ambassador assignments during 2009 and speak at schools, universities, networks, non profit organisations and such. They will share their experiences as entrepreneurs and tell their story in order to inspire others.
The ambassadors are spread all over Sweden
The ambassadors are as varied as the small business sector they represent. The ambassadors are spread all over the country and represent different sectors. The Swedish Agency for Economic and Regional Growth was responsible for the selection process and used criterias such as sector, geographic spread in the county and the country, business form, age of the company, number of employees etc.
In Sweden there are 21 counties. Most counties have 12-40 ambassadors. The larger city regions of Stockholm, Göteborg and Malmö have more ambassadors than the rest of the counties.
Every ambassador has a tool box, containing material useful in order to perform an ambassador visit. In every county there is a regional coordinator appointed, whose task is to support the ambassadors and deal with the on-line bookings. On May 23, 2008 there was a “kick off” in Stockholm for the ambassadors, gathering nearly 700 ambassadors. In May 20 2009, there was another national conference for the ambassadors.
Women Ambassadors from Sweden
12 ambassadors for women´s entrepreneurship, representing Sweden, were appointed in October, as the ambassador concept now is implemented in nine other EU countries. The aim is to make women´s entrepreneurship more visible in the EU and inspire others to regard running a business as a viable career option.
Ten countries are part of the EU Ambassadors project:
Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Iceland, Germany, Poland, Norge, Slovakia, Italy and Ireland.
The Swedish EU Ambassadors are:
Kristiina Starck, Norrbotten, http://www.ambassadorer.se/user/kristiina-starck-1
Marie Nygårds, Norrbotten, http://www.ambassadorer.se/user/marie-nygards-1
Viktoria Knutsson-Nilsson, Västerbotten, http://www.ambassadorer.se/user/viktoria-knutsson-nilsson-1
Hanna Bruce, Gästrikland, http://www.ambassadorer.se/user/hanna-bruce-1
Åsa Jobs, Dalarna, http://www.ambassadorer.se/user/asa-jobs-1
Liselotte Norén, Stockholm, http://www.ambassadorer.se/user/liselotte-noren-1
Kristina Theander, Stockholm, http://www.ambassadorer.se/user/kristina-theander-1
Therese Albrechtson, Västra Götaland, http://www.ambassadorer.se/user/therese-albrechtson-1
Ulla-Lisa Thordén, Västra Götaland, http://www.ambassadorer.se/user/ulla-lisa-thorden-1
Anna Stenström, Blekinge, http://www.ambassadorer.se/user/anna-stenstrom-1
Jeanette Bohman, Skåne, http://www.ambassadorer.se/user/jeanette-bohman-1
Susanne Rostmark, Norrbotten, http://www.frigeo.org
