Going for Growth, an initiative to support women entrepreneurs, has opened up entry to its 11th round of programmes and is inviting ambitious female entrepreneurs looking to scale their businesses to apply.

There are 60 places on the six-month, part-time programme, and Going for Growth is seeking applications from female entrepreneurs in all sectors who are strongly focused on growth and whose businesses should, ideally, be well established and trading for at least two years.

The programme will run from January to June 2019, and the closing date for applications is Wednesday 28 November.

Designed and developed by Paula Fitzsimons of Fitzsimons Consulting in 2008, ten Going for Growth cycles programmes have involved over 600 women entrepreneurs. It is sponsored by Enterprise Ireland and KPMG, and those selected will join interactive round table sessions led by Lead Entrepreneurs.

These are are business women with personal experience of growing a business who are volunteering their time to assist upcoming businesswomen to set “and achieve personalised goals and milestones to address the opportunities and challenges they face in driving growth in their businesses”.

In Association with

Among this year’s lead entrepreneurs are Louise Phelan of Paypal, Fidelma McGuirk of Payslip and Marian O’Gorman of the Kilkenny Group. Previous participants are ambassadors of the benefits for Going for Growth and several now volunteer their time as lead entrepreneurs, including Marissa Carter, Nikki Evans and Oonagh O’Hagan (pictured).

Going for Growth is designed to be action and results-oriented and to go beyond classroom style learning, so the round tables are based on real experience of what has worked and what hasn’t worked in real life situations.

KPMG partner Olivia Lynch commented: “At KPMG we work with many businesses in overcoming challenges and creating opportunities and we’re delighted to continue our support for this exceptional programme. In doing so, we recognise the key role of Enterprise Ireland, all of the Lead Entrepreneurs and the contribution of so many hugely committed individuals. I have no doubt that the eleventh cycle will prove highly valuable to all of the participants.”

Eligibility criteria and application information are available here.