Women’s Enterprise Growth Programme 2025

Overview

An exciting programme designed specifically for women and non-binary people aged 18-35 living or working in London and Liverpool.  You’ll develop the skills, strengths and networks required to grow purpose-led enterprises and in turn create new jobs for underserved communities.

Learn from female and non-binary experts and leaders from the social enterprise sector. Hear their powerful stories—both personal and professional— and understand the hurdles they’ve faced, and discover the strategies they’ve used to succeed. 

Connect and grow with like-minded female and non-binary leaders in social enterprise. You’ll build a supportive network through peer-based learning, where shared insights and experiences will help you tackle challenges together.

Be in the running to win one of four Match Trading™ awards of up to £7,000. 

Take action to overcome challenges through Action Learning Sets, small group work with a trained facilitator, to support you to overcome barriers in your organisation’s development. 

Apply now

The Women’s Enterprise Growth Programme is run by The School for Social Entrepreneurs with support from Youth Business International (YBI) and funded by Standard Chartered Foundation as part of Futuremakers by Standard Chartered.

The learning experience

We’ll give you a free 9-month learning programme designed to help you grow your organisation’s impact.  We’ll support you to build sustainability and resilience, increase customer acquisition and earn more income. The course will consist of:

• 8 learning sessions largely delivered online and in-person from March – December 2025 
• 4 action learning sessions –this is smaller group work with a trained facilitator, designed to support leaders to share successes and challenges and learn from one another (find out more about action learning here)
• Bespoke 1:1 business development and modelling support 
• Access to Contract Readiness support 
• Opportunities to build supportive peer networks  
• The chance to pitch for one of four Match Trading grants of up to £7,000
• A graduation event in December 2025 to celebrate your achievements

“Totally different from other groups I’ve been a part of. Thank you!”

Tailored content for younger women and non-binary social entrepreneurs

The nine-month learning programme will be focused on the needs of participants and is designed to respond to the specific challenges which studies show that female entrepreneurs may face. The learning content will reflect this by:

• Covering topics such as leading with confidence in light of gender inequality in entrepreneurship; managing work life balance and caring responsibilities that many hold; navigating imposter syndrome and self-image; and harnessing your traits and hormonal cycles in order to thrive in your business and life
• Providing role models and stories of success via witness and expert sessions with young, female and non-binary, entrepreneurs/leaders

The programme will also focus on supporting you to achieve organisational financial resilience through:

• Delivering learning sessions on key topics such identifying customers, pricing, marketing, and generating sales and offering financial literacy support
• Incorporating content from SSE’s government funded Contract Readiness support programme to support participants to develop the ability to tender for private and public sector contracts

Who can apply?

We want to hear from you if: 

• You are creating social and/or green impact 

• You are 18-35 years old (at the point of application)  

• You are living or working in Greater London or the Liverpool City Region 

• You have the right to work in the UK 

• You have a plan to grow your enterprise in the next year 

Applicants are likely to have been running their enterprises for less than five years and have an income of between £10,000 – £100,000. If your income is outside of that bracket or have been running your enterprise for longer but feel you could still benefit from support please talk to us, the programme could still be right for you! 

Dates and location

The learning will take place through in-person and online study days running between March and December 2025. With eight study days scheduled, you will meet as a group roughly once per month.

Between study days, learning will take place via the SSE Community, a virtual learning online platform. The SSE Community will enable participants to access information about the programme and wider resources, connect with the other members of the cohort, and attend live online sessions.

• Two in-person study days will be scheduled for March and July 2025 and will take place between 10am – 4pm. These study days will be held in London or Liverpool with travel and accommodation covered for students travelling from outside the region.
• All other study days will take place online from 9:30am -1:30pm via Zoom
• Action Learning Set (ALS) sessions will be delivered in-person

Information sessions

Join our final information session before the 11 November application deadline. This which will give you all the information you need about the programme and is free to attend, simply register using the link below:

• Thursday 7th November at 6pm – 7pm: Book here

Apply now – deadline 11th November, 1pm.

Before making an application, please take a look at the programme guidance notes.

The deadline for submitting completed applications is Monday 11th November, 1pm.
Apply now

We can support you with your application – if you have any questions please contact Monique at [email protected]

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