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The NSW government is committing $15 million over the next four years to support women in small businesses.
More than 95 per cent of businesses in NSW are small businesses but only a third of these are run by women and the funding will help women who want to own and run small businesses access free TAFE courses and professional advice.
NSW Treasurer Matt Kean said cultural and structural barriers like access to professional networks and capital can hold women back from taking the leap to owning their own small businesses.
The funding is part of the 2022-23 NSW budget and will invest in a number of programs over four years including $3.5 million to provide fee-free TAFE NSW Women in Business courses, $2 million in grants to industry associations and chambers of commerce to run professional networking programs for women in small businesses; $5 million to expand the Business Connect program to provide dedicated services to women-led small businesses; and $4.5 million for the Service NSW for Business program to provide targeted support for women-led small businesses.
Minister for Skills and Training, Alister Henskens, said the fee-free TAFE courses will give women in small businesses access to a wide range of online learning topics and webinars, which can be studied anywhere, any time.
“The Women in Business TAFE program will provide women in every corner of NSW with access to fee-free online training on how to start or build a business,” Mr Henskens said.
“More than 15,000 women have already benefited from the program, and this investment will help support a pipeline of female-led start-ups to boost their budget and grow the economy.”
The Business Connect program will be expanded to provide dedicated services to women-led small businesses and since 2017 has helped more than 44,000 small businesses by providing them with personalised and tailored support to help them to start, adapt and grow their operations.
The expansion of the program with an additional $5 million over the next four years to women-led small businesses is targeted at upskilling these leaders with the tools such as marketing, social media, business planning, and digital literacy.
The Service NSW funding will go towards further funding to female-run small businesses to make their business journey easier. This includes access to our Business Concierges, Online Information Hub and Business Profile Digital Platform.