Female Entrepreneurship Debate
Full Debate: Read Full DebateDepartment: Department for International Development
Earl of Listowel
Main Page: Earl of Listowel (Crossbench - Excepted Hereditary)Department Debates - View all Earl of Listowel's debates with the Department for International Development
(5 years, 7 months ago)
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Lord Bates
That was a particular focus of a report done by Vince Cable when he was Secretary of State. It was carried out by Lorely Burt MP, now the noble Baroness, Lady Burt. He came out very much on the side of more needing to be done for entrepreneurs. Alison Rose identified that the problems occur at school with not getting more females into STEM subjects. While some progress has been made, with a 25% increase since 2010, the report recognised that significantly more needed to be done to ensure that people had the skills necessary to set up their business and make a success of it.
The Earl of Listowel (CB)
My Lords, while I warmly welcome the investment that the Government have made in childcare, is the Minister concerned that childcare work, done principally by women, is still very low status and low paid? Will he talk with his colleagues about investing more in continuous professional development for early-years workers so that they start their own businesses and develop themselves?
Lord Bates
Many of them have done that. As well as skills strategies, developments such as the national living wage have made a significant difference to people in those professions. We need to look at all those issues.