<< Background >>The lack of female participation in the EU labour market continues to represent a significant source of untapped potential for EU economies. As outlined by the EU Commission Gender Equality Strategy 2020-2025, gender stereotypes and male-dominated models and networks continue to prevail to the detriment of women.Women make up 52% of the total EU population, yet only 34% are self-employed and just 30% of start-up entrepreneurs are female (WEgate, European Commission, 2020).Covid-19 has undoubtedly exacerbated the challenges of female entrepreneurship promotion as well as the social challenges of violence against women and discrimination (in the EU there has been a rise of 60% in instances of violence against women during the pandemic). At the same time, the post-pandemic landscape provides for new opportunities for female entrepreneurship, specifically the unexploited potential of digital entrepreneurship.As well as addressing the existing gaps in relation to female entrepreneurship promotion, there have also been calls for action to address gaps identified in relation to training under the EU ‘Updated Skills Agenda for Europe’. A specific focus on digital skills is also required which would result in a significant boost to GDP of approximately €9bn (Danti, European Commission, 2016).Therefore, Digital Entrepreneurship for Women (DEW) is ideally placed to respond to both issues – the under-representation of women in the entrepreneurial space and the need for gender-specific training around digital enterprise.Therefore, within this context, DEW delivers the following innovative solutions: 1. Developing innovative, gender-specific training on female entrepreneurship with specific focuses on key areas where female entrepreneurs experience the most challenges e.g. access to finance, digitalisation and accessing networks.2. Establishing an Open Educational Resource which enables access to free resources in 4 languages.3. Contributes to policy development on the topic of female entrepreneurs and digital enterprise, by specifically applying a gender lens to the ENTRECOMP Framework..DEW harnesses the expertise of 7 partners from 5 countries who represent the various dimensions and aspects of female entrepreneurship with a specific emphasis on digitalempowerment. Within the partnership are public and private sector organisations as well as academic, NGO and ICT partners. All of this expertise will combine to successfully deliver on this innovative project.<< Objectives >>DEW is an operational solution to the challenges faced by existing and potential female entrepreneurs in a post-pandemic world. DEW aligns itself with key Erasmus+ priorities including:•Inclusion and diversity in education and training•Digital transformation•Adapting VET to labour market needs•Increase flexibility of opportunities in VETTherefore the DEW objectives encompass the following:•INCLUSION – DEW addresses the issue of social and economic exclusion of women, particularly those from marginalised backgrounds who do not have the opportunity to access supports to acquire or enhance digital enterprise skills. The DEW OER will be an accessible resource and greatly enhance opportunities for new and existing female entrepreneurs but also enhances the suite of supports available to the project partners, and by extension, other enterprise support and VET providers locally, nationally and on the European stage.•DIGITAL – DEW is grounded in digital enterprise supports and both the design of the training and implementation provides opportunities to increases digital competencies. DEW will be a solid resource for users and will also contribute to policy as part of the Gender Effect Assessment which applies a gender lens to the ENTRECOMP framework.•ADAPABILITY AND FLEXIBILITY – DEW will provide a flexible and adaptable platform for upskilling and acquiring new skills in digital entrepreneurship. •CONTRIBUTION TO POLICY – DEW brings a gender perspective to the issue of digital entrepreneurship and the barriers facing female entrepreneurs. It creates a European-wide Community of Practice on the issue and combines the learning and results into a format that can enhance and strengthen new policy initiatives in the area of female entrepreneurship.<< Implementation >>DEW encompasses a number of activities. Key to the success of the project will be:*Gender Effect Assessment – this piece of research is a contribution to both knowledge and pedagogy in terms of the practices and material required to support VET for female entrepreneurs. During this piece of work, a gender lens will be applied to the ENTRECOMP Framework, thereby contributing to future policy development. This work will be carried out by all partners, coordinated by LWL as lead, who has over 25 years’ experience in developing and implementing initiatives to support female entrepreneurship and digital upskilling. *OER – DEW will design and deliver a freely available, flexible and multilingual platform which will provide training resources, tutor guides and digital badges to support the delivery of digital entrepreneurship training to female entrepreneurs. The digital badge is an innovative online validation system which increases the interaction element of the platform and ensures it is an engaging experience for all users. *TRAINING TOOLBOX – This element of DEW is a collective activity, encompassing all of the expertise and skills of the partner organisations – NGOs, social enterprises, adult education providers, education institutions etc. who have vast experience in the area of equality, female entrepreneurship and adult and vocational education. Developing the toolbox will include a pilot phase, testing and validation which incorporates a range of activities from focus groups to online testing activity. *TRANSNATIONAL EVENTS – The success of DEW lies in the quality of its partnership. Therefore the transnational partner meetings will be a critical activity for this project – facilitating knowledge exchange, training development and dissemination activities.*MULTIPLIER EVENTS – As part of the dissemination activity, DEW will hold five Multiplier Events to share the learning and promote the DEW platform as a free, flexible resource for female entrepreneurs. All of this activity makes a significant contribution to the success of the project. Activity is therefore practical and policy-based. Practical activities include the development of the platform, training and testing/validation as well as tutor supports. Policy-based activity involves the gender effect assessment which adds to the current body of knowledge in relation to barriers and obstacles experienced by female entrepreneurs as well as guidelines for future iterations. It also includes the building of a community of practice among female entrepreneurs at local, national and European level – knowledge is created and exchanged on a transnational platform but also within partner countries.<< Results >>DEW will produce a very specific set of results:*An open a flexible platform which will be used by existing and potential female entrepreneurs.*A practical guide to implementing future iterations of the project*A set of training programmes which are accessible and flexible, thereby overcoming many of the accessibility barriers raised by existing research pertaining to female entrepreneurship*Guides for tutors to support learner participation in the pilot phase*Research contribution to the field of policy and research on the subject of female entrepreneurship – barriers and competencies. This research will be innovative in its application of a gender lens to existing frameworks. *The DEW Training Toolbox will enhance training offering by existing providers and practitioners in the field of entrepreneurship, thereby ensuring that the impact of DEW extends beyond the lifecycle of the project. The impact of DEW extends from the local impact right up to European level.*DEW will remain as a sustained platform for female entrepreneurs beyond the EC co-financing: all partners will disseminate the results and seek to mainstream same after the end of the project to better sustain female entrepreneurship skills.*DEW will also create a community of practice of both female entrepreneurs and training organisation/enterprise support agencies both at a national and transnational level.*Finally, DEW believes that the ultimate outcomes will be an increase in digital skills by female entrepreneurs and a tangible support system for this cohort to play an active role in the labour market. It is a meaningful partnership between VET and enterprise.