One of COFACE Families Europe’s Hungarian member organisations, the Union of Hungarian Women Association (UHW), has had its TalentA Hungary programme recognised as a good practice within the Interreg Europe GRANDIS project. The programme has been approved for publication in the Interreg Europe Good Practice Database and has received very positive feedback from an external expert.
This support programme ticks many important aspects at once. First, it is aimed at women who tend to be underrepresented in business leadership. Second, it has a sectoral focus on agriculture and more specifically on green and digital transition in farming, aligning it with EU’s twin transition agenda and key innovation goals. Third, the programme provides comprehensive support: training, group mentoring, individual mentoring, role models and micro grants. The last is especially important as such initial financial support helps ensure that the great ideas would not remain on shelves and the would-be entrepreneurs are unable to take their first actual steps to create the business. Note, that the practice has been supported by Corteva, a large America based publicly traded cooperation working in the agriculture sector. It indicates that sometimes local action can also tap into the mission driven agendas of large corporations.
-Mart Veliste
Works at Interreg Europe Policy Learning Platform
TalentA is a training programme and entrepreneurship competition that supports women in Hungarian agribusiness to develop entrepreneurial, digital and sustainability-related skills. The programme addresses key barriers faced by women in the sector, including limited access to finance, sector-specific education and role models.
The programme is delivered in two stages. Participants first take part in online training courses led by experts in areas such as finance, leadership, entrepreneurship, agricultural innovation, digitalisation and sustainability. Learning is supported through group mentoring, peer learning and practical methods such as Design Thinking. In the second stage, participants submit a microproject proposal for an innovation, development or new business idea. The top three projects receive a total of HUF 3,250,000 (approximately €8,134) in micro-grants, as well as individual mentoring to support implementation.
An external expert highlights TalentA’s strong focus on women, its alignment with the green and digital transition in agriculture, and its comprehensive support model combining training, mentoring and financial support. The programme is supported by Corteva, showing how local initiatives can connect with the mission-driven agendas of large corporations.
TalentA has been implemented in 2021 and 2023, with 29 participants from 15 Hungarian counties in each edition. Around 70 per cent of participants complete all modules, and several winning projects have moved from idea to implementation, including a spice and herb business launched by a 2021 participant.
