A key focus of International Women’s Day is to celebrate women’s achievements in the political, economic, and social spheres. Here at Ajuda, we firmly believe that opportunities for women should be maximised in all walks of life, and particularly in business. This would be beneficial to society as a whole, as increasing the number of women in business will bring huge economic growth – RBS calculated that ‘boosting female entrepreneurship could deliver approximately £60bn extra to the UK economy’.
Ajuda’s Managing Director and founder, Dawn Evans was named Female Entrepreneur of the Year in 2016 at the South Wales Business Awards. Her initial business plan was to create a business that delivered First Aid training in Cardiff. However, since she established Ajuda in 2009, it has expanded to train thousands of people, both locally and across the UK, in a variety of different courses. It is our aim to truly make a difference to safety standards in the community and upskill as many people as possible.
A Role Model for the Welsh Government Big Ideas Programme, Dawn strives to inspire young people to follow the path of entrepreneurship. She often delivers presentations at schools and colleges, where she shares her own experiences of founding a successful local company. This week she will be speaking at Bath University and University of South Wales helping to inspire and motivate young minds. Through her role as a business mentor for The Prince’s Trust, she has also given support and advice to young individuals who are entering into self-employment.
The theme of this year’s International Women’a Day campaign, #PressforProgress, encourages people to contribute to a more gender equal world. The World Economic Forum’s 2017 Global Gender Gap Report findings told us that gender parity is over 200 years away, so, with this in mind, there has never been a more important time to keep motivated in pressing for progress.
Women around the world are making positive gains each day and the global movement of advocacy is quickly growing. At Ajuda we are forever proud of our strong mentor and role model, Dawn, who will be travelling through South Africa next week doing charity work and inspiring others. We hope that today, by celebrating women in leadership roles, we can promote their visibility – giving them due credit for their success and highlighting role models for other women to be inspired by.