In general, there are far fewer women entrepreneurs compared to men in the EU. Comparing the results from an EU Commission study from September 2014 with an article published on the 8th of March 2022 on the European Investment Bank website it is easy to observe how the percentage of women employment in the entrepreneurial sector has remained static (30% in 2008; 31% in 2014 to a value still lower than 33% at the beginning of 2022).

There are multiple causes.

Access to finance is a key factor. Moreover, women are found to be less confident in their abilities and therefore reluctant to make applications which they fear they will fail at. Lastly, there is an underdeveloped market for funding social enterprises and what exists is more complex, compared to mainstream funding.

SCALE-UP wants to foster entrepreneurial skills acquisition by women entrepreneurs (present and future) interested in social sectors, through participation in VET training and training of the professionals who support them (VET trainers and business coaches).
Specifically, it wants to support them in accessing financing and in making their businesses sustainable/competitive in the labour markets, raising awareness on the obstacles they may encounter in social enterprise running/starting up.