This document discusses entrepreneurship education and women's entrepreneurship in Romania. It provides background on entrepreneurship development in Romania and notes that entrepreneurship education is included in secondary school curriculum but university programs are relatively new. Several government programs aim to support female entrepreneurship by providing training and counseling. One such program, called EVA, aims to promote equal opportunities for women through entrepreneurship skills training and business development support for 1,400 women. The document concludes that encouraging female entrepreneurship through such projects will benefit both businesses and society in Romania.

1. Phd. Student Paul IVAN
“Stefan cel Mare” University, Suceava (ROMANIA)
THE ROLE OF ENTREPRENEURSHIP EDUCATION
FOR WOMEN ENTREPRENEURSHIP
DEVELOPMENT

2. THE ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND THE
ENTREPRENEURSHIP EDUCATION IN ROMANIA
 In 2011 the World Bank placed Romania on the 56th
place out of 183 economies analyzed in terms of
ease of doing business.
 Regarding the opening a new business we find that
this operation takes 10 days and requires resources
of to 2.6% of income per capita, Romania occupying
the 44th position in the hierarchy (indicators: time,
cost, procedures and capital minimum).
 The "paying taxes" indicator gives rank 151, with 113
payments per year, amounting to 44.9% of income
and 222 hours required.

3. In the last few years in Romania we can see a positive
development of entrepreneurship thanks to several very
different factors among we can mention:
 various grant programs that encourage new business
development
 the public policies that are periodically providing
benefits to new and small entrepreneurs
 the private funding (business angels)
 the theorists and successful entrepreneurs who
promoted and introduced the concept of
entrepreneurship.

4.  Based on the frame-school education the entrepreneurship
education is studied at the tenth grade at all branches, profiles and
specializations, with a budget of one hour a week.
 Syllabus comply with the rules and it’s focused on developing
entrepreneurial and networking skills in the economic and social
environment for allowing the students to use effective their potential
and, in perspective, to manage effective their business.
 Also 70% of the 56 state universities offer bachelor programs in
business administration and management and 73% offer master
programs in these domains.
 However, both the undergraduate and the graduate programs are
relatively new in terms of entrepreneurship education.

5.  Since the Romanian national education system does
not always succeed in full development of
entrepreneur spirit of their graduates, this task is
substituted by adult education which must complete
and enrich the entrepreneurial skills of those.
 Lifelong education covers all types of training through
education and training, ensuring equal opportunities
by for all, especially for vulnerable groups.
 Entrepreneurship courses should not be seen as
simple courses that ends with a note, but as a
permanent way of thinking or attitude.

6. THE FEMALE ENTREPRENEURSHIP IN ROMANIA
In terms of entrepreneurial motivation, a 2009 study of the Center for
Entrepreneurship and Business Research (CEBR) on female
entrepreneurship in Romania shows that the strongest three reasons for
men are:
 the desire of making money
 the fact that they always wanted their own business
 the wish to improve their quality of life
These are the same regarding the motivation for women entrepreneurship
but we can see that unlike men, women give more importance to these
factors.
In addition to money the women seem to be more motivated by the
opportunity to improve the quality of life and the dream of their own
business is a much stronger motivation for women.
The same study shows that being entrepreneur for follow a family tradition
is a stronger motivation for women than for men and also the contribution
to society through their company or companies.

7. PROGRAMS FOR SUPPORTING THE FEMALE
ENTREPRENEURSHIP
 The 2005 – 2011 national multiannual program for developing
entrepreneurial culture among women managers from SME’s sector
 The program for developing the entrepreneurial skills among young
people and facilitating their access to funding – START
 The 2010 – 2014 Government Strategy for improvement and business
development
 The 2007 – 2013 Human Resources Development Operational Programe
(POSDRU). The general objective of POSDRU can be divided into a
number of specific objectives:
 promoting quality education and initial and continuing training, including
higher education and research
 promoting entrepreneurial culture and improving quality and productivity
 facilitating insertion of young and long term unemployed into labor market
 the development of a modern, flexible and inclusive labor market
 promoting insertion / reinsertion into the labor market of inactive people,
including rural areas
 improving public employment services
 facilitating access of vulnerable groups to education and the labor market

8. BEST PRACTICES IN FEMALE
ENTREPRENEURSHIP DEVELOPMENT
 The “EVA – The Capitalization of Women’s
Entrepreneurship Era“ Project
 Overall objective: to promote equal opportunities and to
facilitate access to employment for 1400 women belonging
from vulnerable groups of four development regions of
Romania (Central, South Muntenia Nord Est, Bucharest-
Ilfov) through specific training programs in order to acquire
entrepreneurial skills and to develop their business and
qualifications required on the market.

9. ACTIVITIES
 Promoting entrepreneurship and awareness of women towards entrepreneurial
culture trough regional campaigns;
 Assessing the current state of female entrepreneurship in Romania and gender
barriers in business and employment. The study of female entrepreneurship in
Romania and gender barriers in the development of entrepreneurship will be made
using desk research and physical and online opinion surveys. The identifying of
business opportunities and training needs for women from the target group will be
made using 20 interviewers, 2,500 questionnaires completed by selected
representative sample, 100 online questionnaires on the project portal, all resulting
in a study on the situation of female entrepreneurship in Romania and gender
barriers in starting businesses and in 4 regional workshops to present and debate
the survey;
 Eliminating gender stereotypes in society and in media through courses for 20
experts and 60 media operators in selected regions;
 Providing training to develop entrepreneurial skills for at least 1,000 women for
starting own businesses for at least 100 of them;
 Providing qualified services for 400 women from vulnerable groups for easier
integration into employment or business start;
 Assistance and counseling through support services for women who want to start
their own business, promote active learning, lifelong learning, transfer of knowledge
and best practices from European countries and developing of guides with good
practices during the project.

10.  The exchange facilitating and integration of best practices will be achieved
through study visits and documentation, organized by transnational partner
about best practices and female entrepreneurship success stories and
trough promoting the social inclusion of vulnerable groups of women.
 There will be counseled 500 women in starting businesses and 400 women
in finding a job.
 The project portal will also provide assistance and advice to a number of
600 women.
 Assistance and counseling activities will therefore contribute to the creation
of new businesses and therefore jobs and will increase the employment
rates and labor market integration of vulnerable people.
 At the end of the project the evaluation of the project will be disseminated
through a workshop to present the achievements of the project and through
an international conference with the participation of transnational partner.
 At present the project was successfully received and is implemented in four
regions of Romania, being in the stage of providing training programs and
consultancy services.

11. CONCLUSIONS
 Entrepreneurship is expected to become one of the most
important areas of the Romanian economy and not only it. Also
we can see that despite a system of education which is
developing at a lower rate than the actual trends, there is interest
from other stakeholders to cover the training needs, both in
general and vulnerable groups.
 The implementation of several projects that will encourage female
entrepreneurship will bring very important benefits for business
environment (use of entrepreneurial skills and development of
new business) and to society (reducing gender discrimination,
facilitating access of vulnerable groups to labor market).
 It is important that other stakeholders (not only women) to receive
entrepreneurship training because very often some viable
business ideas are not implemented due to lack of knowledge
and information in the field.