A project entitled 'NaisWay - Female Energy for transport and logistics' is encouraging Finnish women to become entrepreneurs in the transport sector.

"The aim of the project is to encourage women into the transport and logistics sector and to guide the development of women working in these jobs to the motorway. Entrepreneurship in the sector requires greater in-depth business know-how. NaisWay offers this as well," says Auli Toivonen, the project manager.

The achievements of the three-year project, which is partly funded by the EU's Equal Initiative, includes the start of a specialist vocational qualification for female entrepreneurs, the first of its kind. The first 17 Finnish female participants completed the training in March.

At this moment only 2.1 per cent of goods drivers in Finland are women. One in ten coach drivers are women.

"Compared with other European countries, female access to a male-dominated sector is eased by Finland's advanced day-care system," says Toivonen, who has studied female entrepreneurship in the transport sector.

NaisWay is a way of life, such as entrepreneurship among female entrepreneurs in the transport sector."

>> www.jakk.fi/naisway

In Finland women are now being attracted into jobs in the traditionally male-dominated transport and logistics field.