Glasgow School of Art among seventh cohort at Ana Stewart’s Pathways Pledge
“The seventh cohort launch demonstrates the growing influence and impact of the pledge initiative” – Ana Stewart
A pioneering initiative where companies sign up to actions aimed at driving diversity, equal opportunity and female participation in entrepreneurship and business has launched its seventh cohort.
Ana Stewart’s Pathways Pledge has seen Glasgow School of Art, Maven Capital Partners, BTO, and Nile join a community that now totals more than 40 organisations.
Pledges being committed to by the latest cohort include Glasgow School of Art setting up a cross-disciplinary creative network, Maven launching a survey of female founders and leaders, BTO initiating diversity and equality training for all senior leaders within the firm, and Nile engaging in anti-bias training, workshops and hackathons.
In March, analysis by the ScaleUp Institute in partnership with Pathways Forward revealed that while the growth of female founded and co-founded Scottish scale-ups is outpacing the UK national average, challenges remain in areas including access to investment, talent and support. The research also identified 139 female-founded scale-ups in Scotland - businesses generating in excess of £10 million in revenue or £5m in assets - collectively generating £1.5 billion and employing some 16,000 people.
Pathways Forward was launched in September 2023 following the publication of the Pathways: A New Approach For Women in Entrepreneurship report.
Stewart, chair of Pathways Forward, said: “The seventh cohort launch demonstrates the growing influence and impact of the pledge initiative. It brings together a diverse group of organisations to collaborate and deliver new, measurable and additive initiatives to existing strategies.
“It’s great to see both internal and external facing pledges which will be tracked and monitored over a 12-month period.”
Ruth Cochrane, head of future skills at Glasgow School of Art (GSA), said: “GSA is joining the Pathways Pledge as part of our ‘entrepreneurial campus’ ambitions. We want to help reshape how entrepreneurship is understood and accessed within the creative economy, recognising that our diverse community has significant untapped potential.”
In addition, Pathways Forward is supporting a new pledge collaboration between Venture Café and Scottish Edge, focusing on the engagement between the investment community and female entrepreneurs, with an event due to be held at Edinburgh Futures Institute on May 28.
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