On July 4th 2016, 25 women from the association Led By Her attended a special ceremony in La Grande Arche (Paris) to receive a IESEG certificate confirming completion of their studies in entrepreneurship.
The ceremony was opened by IESEG Director, Jean Philippe Ammeux, with some strong words of admiration for the entrepreneurial participants and sincere appreciation for all Led By Her contributors and supporters.
The specialist entrepreneurship education program, the first of its kind in France, is directed by IESEG professor Dr. Janice Byrne and designed in partnership with ESCP Europe. The programme, which is now in its second year, extends over a 10 month period and is designed for women whose lives have been touched by domestic, sexual or psychological violence and who seek to start their own business. Participants hail from a range of backgrounds, ensuring an eclectic mix of culture, language, experience, education and age in the classroom.
The programme constitutes a total of 298 in-class contact hours and involves over 65 facilitators, 15 of whom are full time permanent faculty at IESEG. Programme content includes personal development workshops, as well as marketing, finance and entrepreneurship modules. Over the course of the year the women also engaged in a number of entrepreneurship related events and networking occasions, including the ESCP entrepreneurship festival, a prototype development and roundtable event hosted by Google as well as a special ‘international women’s day’ event in plot H.
This year, IESEG students have joined in the Led By Her enthusiasm, with 4 students from our Paris campus participating in the Hackathon hosted by Orange in June. Numerous members of IESEG’s administrative staff also support the program. Through the course of the program, Led By Her participants are continuously supported by an individual mentor, helping them gain the most from their experience and develop their individual project venture at their own pace. All contributors – IESEG faculty, external facilitators, mentors, communications, fundraising and administrative staff – participate on a voluntary basis, willingly dedicating their time and energy to this inspiring educational project.