An excellent example of this is our partnership with Girl MOVE Academy, a Leadership and Social Innovation Academy, based in Mozambique, focused on the empowerment of a new generation of women changemakers, turning them into agents for change and impact of their country and the world, breaking the women’s planned cycle of poverty by empowering a new generation of female changemakers through mentorship and sisterhood circles between different generations. 

Girl MOVE Academy is a place where girls and young women find the opportunities to play an active role in their community, society and economy. Girl MOVE tackles one of the reasons why it’s so hard for women to get such opportunities: the absence of role models. With an innovative mentorship methodology sat on female changemaker role models, promoting their connection and talent multiplication through Sisterhood Circles that boost, leverage and nurture new impact models and are keen on expanding and impacting communities. These circles are the safe places where Mozambican Girls from the 7th grade, university leaders and graduated young women changemakers find such new models of reference and mutually activate and motivate themselves, boosting their talent, voices, plans and careers, elevating each other to a new level. 

CATÓLICA-LISBON has been working closely with Girl MOVERS, providing Executive Training in social innovation and entrepreneurship to these graduated women, contributing to activate and develop their talent as changemakers. CATÓLICA-LISBON also co-creates and develops training & inspirational events with the Girl MOVE Academic team, such as the initiative “34 ao cubo” – that brought together 34 Girl MOVERS, 34 Leaders and 34 Católica University Students to design and develop solutions aligned with the SGGs – or the event “Different Stories Coming Together as One” to raise girls’ voices and causes, connecting them with international leaders.  

More recently CATÓLICA-LISBON also participated in the Girl MOVE Academy international initiative called ’30 min to Power Change’ in which Girl MOVERS connect with world leaders to reflect and discuss a new leadership paradigm towards a sustainable world. Isabel Capeloa Gil (Rector of UCP and President of the International Federation of Catholic Universities) and Filipe Santos (dean of CATÓLICA-LISBON) were special guests invited to join this insightful and impactful conversation.

CATÓLICA-LISBON initiatives with Girl MOVE are transforming these empirical results into effective strategies, solutions and impact. 
We invite you to be part of this MOVEment that is lifting humanity by joining us here. 

 

The Women Entrepreneurship Award (WEA) is bestowed by the Center for Technological Innovation & Entrepreneurship (CTIE) and wants to recognise a Portuguese female CEO, Founder or Co-Founder or entrepreneur of any nationality with a project created in Portugal who stands out for her current contribution and vision of the future.

The winner of the Women Entrepreneurship Award will have access to an Advanced Program of Entrepreneurship and Innovation Management (or another equivalent program) at the Católica Lisbon School of Business & Economics, personalized media training, mentoring from one of the jury members, as well as visibility in the media.

 

We@Católica-Lisbon is a CATÓLICA-LISBON program that aims to support and promote female entrepreneurship. This program, which is open to the whole of civil society, seeks to combat economic inequality between genders and provide women entrepreneurs with the necessary tools for their professional success and the success of their businesses.

This program is free and aimed at all women who have launched or are thinking of launching their own business.

The program has two pillars:

1. Empowerment

The aim is to train women entrepreneurs through practical thematic workshops:

How to develop a business plan?
How do I get to know my client?
How to communicate my business?
How to use social networks?
How to access public funding?
How to manage the finances of my business?
How to improve my website?
How to boost networking?
How to control company costs?

These workshops are intended to have a strong practical component, as the main goal is for the participants to learn something very concrete that they can put into practice immediately.

The next edition of the We@Católica-Lisbon workshops will take place on May 24, 2024 at CATÓLICA-LISBON.

2. Consulting Projects 

The aim is to support women entrepreneurs through consultancy projects carried out by students and supervised by professors from this University.

Therefore, all women who manage or own all or part of a business are eligible to apply for projects in areas such as:

  • Development of a business plan
  • Defining an internationalization strategy
  • Defining a marketing plan, a digital communication strategy or launching a new product.

    The application deadlines for these projects are in July and January.

This program, launched in 2020, is free of charge and aims to support women who have had to interrupt their professional activity and are finding it difficult to return to the job market, for reasons such as lack of recent professional experience or lack of a network of contacts. For 12 weeks, professors from the University will work with teams of program participants to develop a consultancy project in a real environment. The program is aimed at women with a background in management, economics, finance or with previous experience in these areas. Applications are open for the next edition, which will begin in May 2024.

This program consists of:

  • 12 weeks with flexible working hours
  • Weekly classes with CATÓLICA-LISBON professors
  • Development of a consulting project in a real environment in one of the program's partner companies
  • Regular meetings at the company where the project will take place and (possibly) at related companies
  • Regular participation in thematic workshops
     

How women can participate:

  • Updating your CV without "masking" your career break
  • Send an e-mail with your CV to CEA@ucp.pt.
     

How companies can participate:

  • Through the symbolic sponsorship of 1 edition, which supports around 5 women
  • Reduced investment value
  • A consultancy project for the company itself or a partner company/organization
  • A social sustainability initiative (SDGs)
  • Integrating women who participated in Back-to-Market into your organization.


Interested companies can send their intention to take part in the program or request information by sending an e-mail to CEA@ucp.pt.

Technovation Girls 2024, is an initiative run by the Happy Code Programming School in Portugal which aims at girls and young women between the ages of 8 and 18, who are invited to develop projects that support one of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

This partnership through the CATÓLICA-LISBON Entrepreneurship Centre (CLEC) and the students’ club CATÓLICA-LISBON BET - Bring Entrepreneurs Together will provide the participants whose parents work at BNP Paribas with mentoring as well as additional sessions at the School.

Technovation Girls in Portugal already has hundreds of participants nationwide and runs from February to May. This program comprises various learning phases: ideation, prototyping, technology development (app or AI model), product testing, promotion, and marketing. During this learning journey, the various groups are accompanied by mentors, who guide the participants, ensuring that the milestones are reached within the due period and the final project is submitted by the deadline.

Know more here