New York, NY, November 28, 2018: The Center for Global Enterprise (CGE), a nonprofit, nonpartisan research institute, today announced that its program, the African Women Entrepreneurship Cooperative (AWEC), will begin accepting applications on December 5, 2018 for its second cohort.
AWEC is a one-of-a-kind, high-touch, 12-month business and management development learning program. AWEC focuses on applied learning and collaborative experiences to ensure immediate business impact and the creation of a pan-African network of entrepreneurs, experts, and allies. The program is open to women who were born in and do business in Africa; members of the diaspora are encouraged to apply, but their business or NGO must have an impact on the continent.
“At the heart of AWEC is a cooperative of women entrepreneurs from across Africa who will not only gain the skills and network needed to advance their businesses, but also pay it forward to the next generation of innovators and business owners,” said Christopher Caine, president of the Center for Global Enterprise. “AWEC is a catalyst for impacting not just the individual business or NGO, but entire communities all across the continent.”
AWEC’s innovative blended learning model leverages:
- Live video learning sessions led by world-class business and academic experts
- Peer sessions that apply new learnings, develop soft skills, and build a pan-African peer network
- Course activities – delivered through a highly-interactive online learning platform – that encourage knowledge application and cross-cultural collaboration
- Mentoring by senior business professionals
- Constructive feedback on assignments from instructors, teaching assistants, and peers
- Leadership Summits that take place twice per year in Africa and provide in-person training and networking opportunities
“What sets AWEC apart from other entrepreneurial training programs is our unique, applied learning model,” said Karen Sippel, managing director of the African Women Entrepreneurship Cooperative. “Our cohort members immediately apply what they learn to their enterprises, creating instant impact. This impact is evidenced in mid-program feedback from our current cohort, in which 60% of participants reported an increase in their level of business management expertise and 50% reported an increase in revenue growth.”
For more information, please visit www.thecge.net/awec. Applications for the 2019-2020 program year will be accepted on AWEC’s website from December 5, 2018 to December 18, 2018.
Philanthropic support from Bloomberg Philanthropies, the Silicon Valley Community Foundation, and other donors make it possible for CGE and AWEC to underwrite the program costs for all participants.
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