With a great focus on women empowerment and gender equality, YLF was the first to pay great attention to female students in vocational schools across Egypt. Working hand in hand with the National Council for Women (NCW) and the Ministry of Education and Vocational Education and partners from the private sector, we created the first program in Egypt that transforms female students into entrepreneurs with stable and successful projects.
Achievements and Numbers
Why Female Students in Vocational Schools?
The goal is to enhance women’s agency to contribute to:
1) Personal benefit and future careers of our beneficiaries
2) enhance their agency to influence public policies in Egypt
What is the process?
This program offers the girls a development plan that includes quality training that will focus on their personal development and give them the required business knowledge that will qualify them to be real entrepreneurs in the future. The program works through Three main development phases and a final competition that selects the best projects to receive financial support along with a sustainability plan for them.
It starts with an orientation phase that includes an explanation of the stages and steps of applying to the program and an introduction to the Application forms inside the chosen schools. Then during the filtration process, students present their ideas, each team consists of 3-5 members. Every team’s idea is assessed based on how accessible, affordable, and applicable their project is Infront of subject matter experts judges,
- The application: when the application call is open, teams can apply through the announced form.
- Orientation: Selected teams will be called in for an orientation session to fully understand how to prepare for the next steps.
- The pitch: As a second filtration, Student activities present their projects in front of a judging panel composed of experts in various fields from different sectors. Teams are separated into leagues so the judging panel can assess the projects and the team’s overall performance based on specific criteria and chooses the best performing team to be qualified for the main event (final competition).
After the filtration phase, students undergo an online assessment through an international assessment tool to uncover their areas of development and areas of strength. This offers a guideline for tailored development for each student with a specialized coach.
Afterwards, students get involved in the development phase, through tailored programs, the girls start developing their skills and can implement their ideas into prototypes and acquire the adequate skills to present them professionally through Entrepreneurial training, Interpersonal training, and Awareness training (the Awareness training is conducted by the National Council of women).
Before the final competition, there is the Mentorship phase, which is complementary phase to the development where the students discuss their projects with their technical mentors to discover their areas of development.
Finally, there is the final competition, where teams will compete in the program’s final competition by presenting their projects and prototypes. During the competition, the judging panel evaluates their projects.
The closing ceremony acts as a massive networking opportunity as it includes winners’ announcements and awarding funding grants, in the presence of our governmental and private partners.
She leads the program and the student do not stop at the final competition but participates in several exhibitions to strengthen their market skills. One of the highlights of their activities was presenting She Leads Recycled products in front of the First Lady Ms.Intessar ElSisi in COP27. Also, the “Our Heritage” exhibition under the patronage of the President of the Republic. Moreover Turathna Event and other Bazaars.
The Winners
Team 11
Team 11
Team 11
The Program is Under the patronage of
Sponsors
