National Workshop
Program

The Enterprising Girls Workshops are engaging and interactive full or half days workshops held in schools around Australia. These workshops are offered FREE to primary and secondary schools and are offered both virtually or face to face. During the workshop students learn to use design thinking to create a business idea based on an issue in their community e.g. climate change, COVID-19, waste etc.

More women than ever are working, with 5.8 million now employed in Australia. Yet women still face a gender pay gap and the average superannuation of an Australian woman is 42 per cent below an Australian man. This disparity has long-term consequences for Australia and must be addressed for self-employed women in particular. 

Self-employment is an increasingly viable career path in Australia, particularly for women who would otherwise face barriers to workforce participation. Advances in digital technology and globalisation are reducing barriers to entrepreneurship. For example, the NBNCO Connecting Australia study demonstrated that the percentage growth rate of female-led businesses in locations with NBN access was 23 times higher than in other areas. 

Despite the employment advantages of an entrepreneurial skill set, only 12% of Australian startups are female-led. There is also well-known gender disparity in STEM fields in Australia, with very low rates of female participation. 

Many women under 30 in Australia find the idea of self-employment highly appealing but lack the confidence and know-how to pursue it. 

The core modules in the workshop program take girls on a journey of discovery using creative and engaging content such as videos, interactive tasks and problem solving. The workshops take a project-based learning approach helping young women develop skills in design thinking, innovation and business, focused around creating a business idea based on an issue in their community.

The Academy for Enterprising Girls was co-designed by secondary school students, educators, experienced entrepreneurs and industry leaders during 2019. We worked with entrepreneurial program providers – the Foundation for Young Australians, Young Change Agents, Future Anything and Tech Girls Movement – to ensure that the curriculum and content uses best practice in entrepreneurial education and where there were existing gaps in materials already on offer.

Our consultation and co-design process involved:

– 168 girls from a range of backgrounds and across primary, secondary and Catholic education

– 45 educators and educational experts, across primary, secondary and higher education providers

– 39 industry stakeholders

– Co-design and consultation events hosted by a range of corporate and educational partners including Google, Atlassian, Canva, Muru-D, Griffith University and CQUniversity

Please note, we have safeguards and policies in place to help protect girls participating in Academy, both online and at our face to face workshops.  

Read our ‘Working with Children’ policy on our ‘Terms of Use’ page to see more details about our organisational culture and Code of Conduct, our Child Safety Policy and our complaint form for reporting any concerns.  

Please be assured that we will be providing an open, welcoming and safe environment for all those participating in our program.

The workshops are being organised and delivered by experienced educators from Young Change Agents, Foundation for Young Australians, Code Like a Girl and Tech Girls Movement. They will be offered in a range of formats from half-day school-based workshops to 2.5 day offsite workshops.

While we love visiting in person, if your school is impacted by COVID we are able to deliver these workshops through a remote learning option.

Just come along with an open mind and excited, entrepreneurial attitude!

The Academy for Enterprising Girls Workshops are designed and delivered by our experienced education partners at Young Change Agents.