Empowerment in Action: Girls who Lead Cultivates the Female Leaders of Tomorrow Girls who Lead: Navigating Leadership Skills in a Rapidly Evolving Europe
In October 2025, the new Erasmus+ European project “Girls who Lead: Navigating Leadership Skills in a Rapidly Evolving Europe” officially began. Its goal is to empower girls aged 16–18, with particular emphasis on those from disadvantaged backgrounds, to acquire essential leadership skills for today’s digital and rapidly changing world. The project has a duration of 24 months and a total budget of €250,000.
Girls who Lead is creating a comprehensive skills framework that responds to the needs of the new generation of women leaders. The programme includes digital, green, entrepreneurial, emotional, and social skills—competencies that today’s European reality highlights as necessary for promoting gender equality in leadership.
Activities include mapping leadership skills, developing an interactive training programme, creating a Mentor Guide, and producing a gamified educational escape room that strengthens learning through experiential puzzles. Additionally, an artificial intelligence (AI) toolkit will be developed, featuring podcasts and digital resources that explain how AI is transforming leadership skills and the role of young women in this context.
A key action is the Community Impact Initiative, where girls from all participating countries will take on leadership roles by creating a small social entrepreneurship idea that addresses real needs in their communities. The project will culminate with the GirlLeaders Forum in Latvia, where results will be presented, and where girls, educators, and stakeholders will engage in dialogue and networking.
🔵 Cyprus’ Dynamic Participation
Two organisations from Cyprus are participating, both with established experience in education, entrepreneurship, and social empowerment:
Junior Achievement Cyprus
The organisation is the national representative of JA Worldwide and collaborates with the Ministry of Education to deliver programmes on entrepreneurship, financial literacy, and work readiness across all levels of education. Every year, it trains more than 5,500 students across Cyprus. It has extensive experience in initiatives promoting girls in STEM fields through the Girls Go Circular programme, which aims to break stereotypes and enhance girls’ digital skills. Within Girls who Lead, its activities include developing the Mentor Guide and coordinating the Community Impact Initiative, leveraging its expertise in student entrepreneurship competitions.
SYNTHESIS Center for Research and Education
SYNTHESIS is one of Cyprus’ leading organisations in social innovation, social entrepreneurship, and the empowerment of vulnerable groups. It manages Hub Nicosia, a space for education and support of refugees, migrants, and youth with fewer opportunities, and has long implemented the Social Café programme—a women’s empowerment initiative for migrant and refugee women through life skills and networking. In the Girls who Lead project, SYNTHESIS leads the mapping of leadership skills (GirlLeadersComp) and the design of the training programme, drawing on its expertise in educational tools, non-formal learning, and skills development.
The project is implemented by six organisations in total: Junior Achievement Latvia (coordinator), Junior Achievement Cyprus, EMPRESAS CON VALORES (Spain), IED Estonia, SYNTHESIS Center for Research and Education (Cyprus), Global Women in Tech (Romania).
Girls who Lead aspires to create a new generation of girls who dare, lead, and transform their communities with passion and dedication to social solidarity, sustainability, and respect for their communities and the environment.
The project is co-funded by the European Commission.
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