Turkey Needs Business Schools For Women Entrepreneurship

Turkey needs business schools that will prepare women for entrepreneurship and the business world, Candan Cilingiroglu, president of the Association of Businesswomen in Izmir, said Friday.



Addressing the Seventh Mediterranean Women Entrepreneurs Forum at the Ninth Mediterranean Week of Economic Leaders in Barcelona, of which Anadolu Agency is one of the media partners, Cilingiroglu spoke about the role of women entrepreneurship in Turkey.



"We need business schools in Turkey to teach entrepreneurship. If we had more of them, it would be easier for women to find jobs after they graduate," she said.



She said that women in Turkey had an illiteracy rate of 7 percent, while that rate is 1.4 percent among Turkish men and 21.5 percent among Turkish women.



"In Turkey, 31 percent of women are in the business world. Most women work in agriculture and low salary jobs, while 6.5 percent of working women are entrepreneurs in the country," she said.



"Women's success stories must be known in Turkey through television programs and newspapers," she added. 



Noting that only 9 percent of total entrepreneurs are women in Turkey, and 58 percent of working women had no social security in the country, Cilingiroglu said: "The most important need of a woman is education".



"We are partners with some universities and banks. Through our projects, we try to prepare women for the business world and entrepreneurship in Turkey," she added.



"At IZIKAD, we provide business opportunities for women who don't have a job by offering them a profession through specialized training programs. And, for those who already have set up their businesses, we offer trainings and access to financial resources. We help to prepare female university students as the future businesswoman and entrepreneurs," she said. - Catalonia