The University of Strathclyde is amongst the latest group of ‘Pledge partners’ who have committed to supporting women entrepreneurs through the Pathways Forward programme.
Launched in September 2023, Pathways Forward aims to advance the recommendations from the Scottish Government-commissioned ‘Pathways: A New Approach for Women in Entrepreneurship’ report, focusing on increasing women’s participation in the entrepreneurial economy.
The University joins Converge, The Open University of Scotland, Royal Bank of Scotland, Scottish Enterprise, SIS Ventures, Social Investment Scotland and South of Scotland Enterprise, in the second cohort of Pledge partners, and, through its Strathclyde Inspire entrepreneurship strategy, has committed to actionable steps aligned with the principles set out in the Pathways report: This link opens a PDF document.
The latest cohort joins AccelerateHER, CivTech, CodeBase, Deloitte, Eos Advisory, Scottish EDGE, and the Scottish National Investment Bank as Pathways Pledge partners.
Ensuring diversity
Strathclyde Inspire has committed to: ensuring diversity on all decision-making/selection processes at critical stages of the entrepreneurial journey; educating all staff involved in the delivery of Strathclyde Inspire about equality and diversity initiatives in the context of entrepreneurship; and to capturing, analysing and sharing anonymised and aggregated diversity data relating to its investment portfolio.
Professor Sir Jim McDonald, Principal & Vice-Chancellor of Strathclyde, said: “As a leading international technological University that is both entrepreneurial and socially progressive, our commitment to enabling inclusive entrepreneurship is central to our new institution-wide entrepreneurship strategy, Strathclyde Inspire, to 2030.
“By ensuring that we embrace diversity and inclusivity in all our decision-making processes at each critical stage of the entrepreneurial journey, and by educating all Strathclyde Inspire staff about EDI in the context of entrepreneurship, our pledges will reduce the conscious and unconscious biases often faced by aspiring entrepreneurs from underrepresented groups.”
Firm commitments
Pathways Forward’s Ana Stewart, who chaired and led the Pathways review, said: “We have been overwhelmed by the level of support for Pathways from across the corporate, public, and not-for-profit sectors, and the Pledge partnership centres on firm commitments to effect change across each organisation.
I would like to personally thank all of our Pledge partners to date, and we look forward to more like-minded organisations joining the fold.
The announcement of the latest Pledge partners comes as Pathways prepares to stage the inaugural Female Founders Growth Summit at the RBS Conference Centre at Gogarburn in Edinburgh on Thursday 5th September in partnership with Female Founders Rise, a UK-wide resource and community for female founders building growth businesses.
Ana added: “The Female Founders Growth Summit brings our scale-up founders together with the investment community and is focused on energising this often challenging growth stage of the founder journey.”
The headline sponsors for the summit are Royal Bank of Scotland, Scottish Enterprise, and Scottish National Investment Bank, with British Business Bank, EY, and Eos as sponsors, while the community partners for the Summit are Dechomai and AccelerateHER. Former BBC broadcaster and Freer Consultancy associate Dr Vanessa Collingridge will be the on stage host on the day.