APID a female entrepreneurial association: how it works, its goals and project Silvia Sicheri, Apid

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APID a female entrepreneurial association
how it works, its goals and projectSilvia
Sicheri, Apid
PHARE Business Support Programme of the European
Union UEAPME - SME FIT II
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• APID is an employers association born in 1989
  under the API (Association of Small and Medium
  Industries of Turin and its Province) and the
  CONFAPI (National Confederation of Small
  Industries) system.

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• Founded in 1949, API Torino counts nearly 3,200
  associate enterprises and a total working force
  of about 65,000 people.
• The activities of the Association are oriented in
  two directions
• ? representation, protection and promotion of
  its associates interests towards the
  institutions, the political and social parties
  and the public opinion
• ? offer of a network of advisory services and
  assistance to enterprises

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• Since 1947 CONFAPI represents provincial and
  regional Associations at national level.
• Besides drawing up labor national agreements with
  Union Organizations, CONFAPI is widely
  represented at Ministries, Institutes, Economic
  Authorities and National commissions, in order to
  promote the general issues of Small and Medium
  Enterprises
• CONFAPI groups 65 Territorial APIs, for a total
  of more than 60,600 enterprises and about
  1,167,000 people.

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• The Federation among API of the Piedmont Region
  falls within the CONFAPI Federapi Piemonte
  system.
• Federapi has the task of coordinating provincial
  APIs offices and representing the associates at
  regional level.

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• Statutory aims of APID are
• to promote supporting actions for female
  entrepreneurship development
• to support occasions of development and
  professional formation, also through studies and
  researches
• to draw information from experiences and
  initiatives carried out by each country of the
  European Union and to propose itself like an
  interlocutor in each action
• to help the creation of new enterprises, being a
  reference from the beginning and during the
  course of independent activities
• to promote local employment initiatives
• to promote policies and measures on flexibility
  and reconciliation between working and private
  life
• to make entreprise aware on Corporate Social
  Responsability
• to encourage lobbies and networks
• to support positive actions for womens access
  into the Unions of Category and APIs executive
  board.
• For the achievement of such objects, APID
  cooperates with all the competent institutions
  within local, national, community and
  international bodies.

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• the CONFAPI WOMEN ENTREPRENEURS GROUP was born in
  2005
• it collects all Italian Apid with the purpose of
  promoting female entrepreneurship and of beeing a
  place of comparison and dialogue for SME

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• The Apids associates percentage in Italy
  amounts to 22 of all Api enterprises. It almost
  covers every sector
• Building
• Graphics, Publishing, Papermaking
• Telematics Industries
• Wood, Cork, Furniture and Furnishings
• Textile-Clothing
• Food
• Chemical, Plastics, Rubber
• Metal and Mechanics
• Trade and Integrated Services

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• Other than Turin in Italy exist
• Apid Novara,
• Apid Alessandria,
• Apid Milano,
• Apid Brescia,
• Apid Modena,
• Apid Ancona/Macerata,
• Apid Abruzzo,
• Apid Pescara,
• Apid Umbria,
• Apid Napoli,
• Apid Bari,
• Apid Siracusa,
• Apid Sarda.

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• Since 2006 APID chairs FEM, Femmes Europeennes
  des Moyennes et Petites Entreprises.
• It is an European Organization member of UEAPME,
  Union Europeenne de lArtisanat et des Petites et
  Moyennes Entreprises, that collects provincial,
  regional and national association dealing with
  female entrepreneurship.

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APID a female entrepreneurial association how
it works, its goals and project

• Services

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• Apid has a lot of experience in gender culture,
  equal opportunities.
• It encourages and supports measures on
  flexibility and reconciliation between working
  and private life to improve situation of
  entrepreneurs and employees.

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• In frame of training, Apid organised courses on
  Equal Opportunity, on making business in foreign
  countries, on marketing and on the spread and
  diffusion of gender culture to improve members
  knowledge and to guarantee continuous training.

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• Apid has recently opened a documentation center
  where students, entrepreneurs or common people
  may find books, reports or documents on equal
  opportunities and economical or social issues.

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• Apid guarantees advice and help to women with an
  entrepreneurial idea thanks to a free consultancy
  front office.
• Experts follow the new entrepreneurs from the
  starting idea until the new activity opening. Our
  knowledge on legislation relevant to enterprises
  start up and business maintenance on competitive
  market ranges from national to regional laws.

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• In all its actions Apid pay a lot of attention to
  Corporate Social Responsability standards and
  topics and spread them among its associated and
  networks.

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• As asked by EU principles on equal opportunities,
  Apid works to guarantee gender mainstreaming and
  the spread of good practices.
• With the purpose of filling gender gap in the
  past Apid participated to several European
  projects (Leonard, Equal, ESF objective 3).

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APID a female entrepreneurial association how
it works, its goals and project

• Best Practices

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EUROPEAN PROJECTS

• Da donna a donna. EQUAL project
• Through this project it has been understood
  which were real needs of working women in fields
  such as work life balance, reconciliation of work
  and family life. As a conseguence helpful
  services have been studied and tested.
• Vision 2000 il genere nella certificazione di
  qualità. LEONARD project
• The final goal of this project was giving tools
  to entreprises in order to introduce and to
  certify human resources management in gender
  perspective. The aim was to study and to test new
  models for business management construing them
  considering gender bias, and to create a new
  entrepreneurial culture where quality and equal
  opportunity are linked.

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EUROPEAN PROJECTS

• Time conciliation i nuovi modelli di
  organizzazione del lavoro. POR Fondo Sociale
  Europeo (ESF) obiettivo 3 - Misura E1
• The aim was to obtain from entreprises and from
  Turin and Novara municipalities employees precise
  needs in specific fields such as working hours
  organisation and supporting methods for family.
  Entrepreneurial and political figures had been
  made aware of the opportunity of introducing
  flexibility and reconciliation. The project
  wanted to define some guide lines to construct
  models on labour organisation able to reflect
  reconciliation needs.

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EUROPEAN PROJECTS

• Un liguaggio comune per le pari opportunità POR
  Fondo Sociale Europeo (ESF) obiettivo 3 -
  Misura E1
• Projects general aims were to provide subjects
  and matters to orientate territory at initiatives
  on labour policies in Equal Opportunities
  perspective. The project tryed to develop
  cognitive and organizational conditions to
  integrate Equal Opportunities in SMEs human
  resorces managment and to spread information on
  Equal Opportunities policies among entreprises.

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EUROPEAN PROJECTS

• Manager della conciliazione. POR Fondo
  Sociale Europeo (ESF) obiettivo 3 - Misura E1
• Projects aim was to promote careers and
  abilities of 20 women employed in association in
  order to create a figure able to know all topics
  related to reconciliation, the so-called
  reconciliation and empowerment manager.
• At the end of the project, managers and
  Presidents of Turin SME associations had signed a
  document to create a lobby on reconciliation
  that will give a benchmark on territory both for
  entreprises and institutions.

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EUROPEAN PROJECTS

• ILO Add value, break stereotypes PROGRESS
  Programme
• The overall objective of this project is to help
  private sector companies to better understand the
  benefits of combating gender stereotypes, and
  improve their ability to act.
• By the end of 2008, a training and
  awareness-raising campaign on the why and how to
  combat gender stereotypes in SME will have been
  developed, adapted, advertised and implemented in
  15 EU - EFTA countries. At least 300 relay
  agents will have been trained and be able to
  disseminate the training kit at national level.
  Some 10 small and medium-sized European companies
  will also have pilot tested the measures and
  tools proposed in the training kit.

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EUROPEAN PROJECTS

• BSP III Business Support Program Bulgaria
  Romania Croatia and Turkey
• Projects overall objectives are to help craft
  SMEs in Bulgaria, Romania, Croatia and Turkey to
  understand and apply the community acquis in
  selected areas, to strengthen the SME
  organisations of Bulgaria, Romania, Croatia and
  Turkey, to create an efficient network between
  the different partners, especially between the
  associations from EU Member States and candidate
  countries.

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NATIONAL PROJECTS

• Che fa concilia? (Job Sharing). Progetto di
  azione positiva Legge 125/91.
• Projects purpose was to encourage, through a
  new labour organization, the balance between
  family and professional responsabilities and to
  reallocate better such responsabilities between
  women and men. Thanks to the project the
  employers and employees involved had a deep
  knowledge on reconciliation possibilities and
  policies already existing in Italy, on
  flexibility and on training access given by the
  national law 53/00 and by Job Sharing contracts.

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NATIONAL PROJECTS

• Cè parità per te Progetto di azione positiva
  legge 125/91
• The project wants to give to territory an
  opportunity to develop gender policies in a
  system. In order to use Equal Opportunities
  principles in the access to work and social life
  its necessary to compare policies and to act in
  different areas. Thanks to this project, infact,
  a training on Equal Opportunities has been made
  on teachers of the municipalities involved on the
  project and a recognition was given to an
  entreprise that applies Equal Opportunities
  principles.

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NATIONAL PROJECTS

• Empowerment imprenditrici torinesi allo
  specchio e alla finestra Progetto di azione
  positiva legge 125/91
• This project wants to implement professional
  training, qualified work and to promote womens
  entrance in category were are unrepresented as in
  the high level of management. The twelve
  entrepreneurs involved in the project worked
  together as the path finished with Business
  Theatre. They were been able to create a good
  network that will exist and will work in the
  future.

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• www.apid.to.it
• Apid Imprenditorialità Donna
• Via Pianezza, 123,
• 10151, Turin
• Italy
• Tel [phone]
• Fax [phone]
• e-mail apid_at_apito.it
• giulia.chinnici_at_apid.to.it

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Thank you!Silvia Sicheri, Apid
PHARE Business Support Programme of the European
Union UEAPME - SME FIT II