Goldman Sachs Foundation in the partnership with Coursera, the world’s largest online platform for higher education, has launched an online education program. It will provide digitized curriculum and interactive platform for women business owners and entrepreneurs across the globe. The online platform is provided with a world-class business education and a global peer-to-peer network. The course is free of cost and built especially for the women business owners in the challenging market. The course contains different modules according to which women entrepreneurs would get training. In the introductory module, female entrepreneurs will evaluate their businesses in terms of strength and weakness, and also themselves as a business leader.  The other modules are focused on the strategies to identify, optimize and execute growth opportunities. In the end, learners will have a business plan to follow as they continue to grow and evolve their businesses. Certification will be given to those women entrepreneurs who have at least three employees and have USD 50,000 annual revenue in their business.

 All the participants will be mentored by a network of students and alumni who will be providing real-time support and group learning across a number of technologies and channels.

John F.W. Rogers, The Chairman of the Goldman Sachs Foundation, commenting on the partnership with Cousera, said, “This is a question of opportunity, not capability, and this partnership with Coursera allows us to reach those entrepreneurs we haven’t been able to before”. Supporting businesses to grow is the core of what we do as a company, and increasing access to business education to support smart, driven and talented women is good for their business, he added.

The Goldman Sachs launched the 10,000 women initiative in 2008. The aim was to foster economic growth by providing business education to women entrepreneurs across the world. The Initiative was the result of the research conducted by Goldman Sachs, WHO, and others and also suggested that an investment can lead to GDP growth. At present, there are more than the 10,000 women in the initiative because of an in-person program, where 70 percent of the graduated report higher revenues and nearly 60 percent created new jobs.