The head of a North East firm that helps people into better work or starting their own business has won a £50,000 innovation award for women.
Charlotte Windebank, from Gateshead firm First, is one of the winners of Innovate UK’s Women in Innovation Award, which aim to empower pioneering women across the UK to scale their innovative businesses. The prize for business leaders developing solutions to major social, environmental and economic challenges includes a £50,000 grant plus one-to-one business coaching, and a suite of networking, role modelling, and training opportunities.
The prizes have been announced on International Women’s Day, with Ms Windebank honoured alongside companies working in a range of sectors, including the arts and public protection. First has created safe, peer learning spaces where people can develop enterprise skills and experience, working particularly with learners in some of the region’s most under-resourced communities in the region.
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She said: “The ambition is that enterprise skills and entrepreneurial experiences will become more of a training priority within education and for local governments who are dealing with unemployment, low skill attainment and low start-up business rates. I feel proud, grateful and excited to win this Innovate UK Award. It hasn’t fully sunk in.”
The Women in Innovation Awards is a key part of Innovate UK’s commitment to boosting the number of women entrepreneurs. Now in its sixth year, the competition drew a record number of 920 applications from women business leaders, 10% up from last year.
Emily Nott, head of equality, diversity and inclusion programmes at Innovate UK said, “Each year I am blown away by the brilliant ideas and talent we uncover through our Women in Innovation programme.
“Despite these challenging economic times, this year’s winners have shown great leadership, passion and resilience in driving their innovations forward. Innovate UK will work alongside them now to ensure they have the resources and support required to grow and scale their businesses, while encouraging a new generation of women to get involved in innovation, pursue their ambitions and transform our economy and society.”
Indro Mukerjee, CEO of Innovate UK, said: “The Innovate UK Women in Innovation programme is an important part of our many activities to make a real difference to the talent and skills pipeline for UK business innovation by inspiring, involving and investing in greater diversity.
“I warmly congratulate all the Women in Innovation Award winners and look forward to keeping in touch as they progress.”
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