Classroom teaching sessions, not workshops, are the most useful building blocks for success in entrepreneurship, especially among women.

This was determined after the presentation of the results of GE Money Bank-Let’s Go Foundation’s survey on women entrepreneurship, the first phase of the Women Entrepreneurship Program (WEP) which was launched last December. The program aims to educate and inspire young Filipina women to be enterprising leaders of society. Data from the survey will be used to develop a curriculum designed for teachers nationwide to adapt into their respective entrepreneurship programs.

“An entrepreneurial culture will help uplift the quality of life of women, including their family, community, and aid in the economic development of the country,” says Jay Bernardo, Let’s Go Foundation founder and Asian Institute of Management (AIM) professor, during the discussion of the survey results at the AIM Conference Center in Makati City.

The research study, conducted by market research guru Dr. Ned Roberto, identified the tools that successful women entrepreneurs proved important in their businesses and the factors that affected their decision-making processes. It was aimed at getting insights into the experiences, problems, success, and attitudes of growing women entrepreneurs, the findings of which will be used to create a curriculum for an entrepreneurship training program specifically tailored to the needs of would-be women entrepreneurs.

The survey research focused on 100 growing women entrepreneurs, referring to women who are engaged in business for at least two years. Each of them was interviewed face-to-face, one-by-one by highly trained researchers who were guided under Roberto’s strict tutelage. Each was asked 29 questions that pertained to their experiences as they engaged in entrepreneurial activities.

The study showed that 43 percent of women entrepreneurs surveyed find the professor teaching the subjects as the process most useful in growing their businesses against the common notion that workshops are the most effective tools. “It is, therefore, essential to optimize the learning experience of every aspiring entrepreneur by equipping teachers with the right classroom materials,” says Bernardo.

The survey further revealed that 65 percent of growing women entrepreneurs initially worked in a private corporation before going into business. A good 53 percent of the respondents also showed that these women had parents who were both entrepreneurs. It was no surprise, therefore, that most of them drew their inspiration of going into business from their families.

In addition, the research study showed that 31 percent of those surveyed said finance is the most critical subject to master, while 26 percent said marketing another 23 percent said strategic management. These results demonstrate the importance of structural or foundational education necessary for those who pursue majors in entrepreneurship programs.

GE Money Asia Corporate Citizenship leader Tomoko Takazawa notes: “By learning from the survey completed by Let’s Go Foundation and utilizing our expertise as a bank, as well as our experience of implementing financial education programs, we look forward to developing a unique curriculum which would really be beneficial for Filipino students. Empowering women through financial education is GE Money’s global objective for its corporate citizenship initiative.”

Let’s Go Foundation and GE Money Bank are now developing a teaching program to be rolled out to pilot schools in 2007. Based on the figures of the pilot research, the program will be refined and enhanced for wider implementation across the country, targeting women’s colleges in the future.

Taking cue from the results, the WEP recommended offering a program with finance, marketing, strategic management and human resource management as options for a major.

Also, part of the curriculum, students were urged to undergo on-the-job training in corporations in order to gain experience and training that will expose them to corporate systems and procedures. It was also suggested to integrate as priority targets the qualities of passion and dedication into the self-mastery or self-discovery modules of the training program for entrepreneurs. Networking skill, likewise, was also underscored as an important trait to encourage or even train early in the life of a woman.

Finally, in order to optimize entrepreneurs’ learning experiences, it was deemed that the thrust be primarily put in preparing teachers, and then on developing teaching materials. Thus, an effective “Train the Trainors” program was advised.

GE Money Bank president and CEO Ben Kua reiterates, “The survey results are incredibly important because they point us in the right direction toward building a unique and relevant program that offers women interested in entrepreneurship the right foundations to succeed.”

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