PR-2104
March 8, 2021
Fact Sheet
The Academy for Women Entrepreneurs
AIT Director Brent Christensen joined Taiwan Economic Minister Wang Mei-hua on International Women’s Day to launch the Academy for Women Entrepreneurs (AWE) program in Taiwan.
The U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA) established AWE in 2019 to support the goals of the Women’s Global Development and Prosperity (W-GDP) Initiative, which demonstrates U.S. commitment to advancing women’s economic empowerment and reaching 50 million women globally by 2025.
AWE Taiwan will partner with the Fei-Yen program under the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) to recruit and provide training for 90 early-stage women entrepreneurs across Taiwan. The 90 Taiwan participants will join the global AWE network and ECA’s exchange alumni database upon completing their training.
As Director Christensen said in his remarks: “I am proud to announce today that for the first time Taiwan is included in the Academy for Women Entrepreneurs program, which embraces our goals to strengthen U.S.-Taiwan economic and commercial cooperation and to enhance language learning.” He emphasized, “The U.S.-Taiwan relationship has never been more critical and one of our most important areas of cooperation is the work we are doing to support women.”
See attached AWE Highlights Factsheet for more information on AWE’s global impact. For AWE Taiwan details and application information, please visit https://forms.gle/aZhejhgpg44Wim4fA.
AWE Highlights Factsheet
About the Program
- AWE is designed to empower women worldwide to fulfill their economic potential, creating conditions for increased stability, security, and prosperity for all. AWE provides women entrepreneurs with the skills, resources, and networks needed to start and scale successful businesses.
- AWE is centered around the online training program DreamBuilder, developed through a partnership between Arizona State University’s Thunderbird School of Global Management and global copper mining company Freeport-McMoRan. The platform covers courses on marketing, product design, selling, accounting, and management which equip women with the tools needed to create and grow their own businesses, raise capital, and develop a business plan. https://dreambuilder.org/
- Through AWE, women entrepreneurs participate in a facilitated entrepreneurship program supplemented with localized content, as well as networking and mentorship opportunities.
- The most popular industries represented by AWE participants are food, manufacturing, retail, handicrafts, and education.
Global Impact
- Since launching in 2019, AWE has been implemented in 53 countries in every region of the world. AWE 2019 participants numbered more than 2,000 and AWE 2020 reached 5,000 more.
- In 2021, the U.S. expects to implement AWE in more than 70 countries and aims to reach more than 7,000 women.
- There are more than 2,000 AWE alumnae that are actively engaged in AWE programming and ECA Alumni activities.
- After participating in AWE, the number of women who had mentors doubled; 66 percent of women have mentors after participating in AWE, compared to 34 percent at the beginning of the training.
- 98 percent of AWE participants report that their confidence has increased.
- From the feedbacks of AWE participants, 99 percent of them would recommend AWE to other women they know.
- 100 percent of participants plan to implement items from their business plan developed during the training.
