Real women. Real barriers. Real ways forward.
“Rooted and Rising: Women in Agriculture” – SWEEP TransformHER micro-credential course
Course description
Imagine a young woman at the edge of a field, with an idea, a phone and no clear plan. Rooted and Rising starts there. In three short lessons, you’ll hear directly from women entrepreneurs about how their ventures began, which barriers stood in their way, and what it took to keep going without a safety net. Through video clips, quick knowledge checks and reflection activities, you’ll learn to name the barriers you may face, identify the people and networks that could help, and rethink what resilience really means. Complete the course to earn a digital badge.
“There’s no better time to do it than now.”
Anastasia Oyebanji
Course at a glance:
| Format | Online, self-paced short course: 3 lessons |
| Time | Approximately 1-2 hours, including reflection activities |
| Who it’s for | Women interested in building a career or business in agriculture |
| What you’ll do | Watch short video clips, answer multiple-choice knowledge checks, and complete a reflection or action task in each lesson |
| What you’ll earn | A digital badge on completion of all three lessons and knowledge checks |
| Cost | Free |
What you will learn
- Recognise that an entrepreneurial journey can begin with curiosity and an imperfect starting point; articulate your own motivation for pursuing agricultural entrepreneurship.
- Identify structural barriers women commonly face in agriculture; how a support network can help.
- Distinguish ‘doggedness’ from ‘resilience’; understand the difference between equity and equality in entrepreneurial support.
“Fail early, learn,
Mabel Adaeze
unlearn, relearn.”
Course Outline
Lesson 1: Starting From Where You Are.
Hear how Mabel’s own question about why agriculture hadn’t kept pace with other industries, became a business.
Lesson 2: Naming the Barriers, Building the Ecosystem.
Land, mentorship and visibility, and what happens when women build the support network that didn’t exist.
Lesson 3: Redefining Resilience.
Anastasia’s challenge to a familiar word, and what entrepreneurship support should really look like.
Meet the entrepreneurs
Mabel Adaeze
Founder of FarmNet360, a fast growing agri tech venture. She has given 100+ farmers visibility on her platform and trained 200+ in climate-smart agriculture.
Anastasia Oyebanji
Co-founder of Black Business Lincolnshire, first runner-up in the HSBC/FSB diversity and equality competition from 2,800+ entrants in the East Midlands.
How to enrol
Access the course
- Follow the course link provided below to access the course you would like to complete.
- Before you can access the course, you will be taken to the Rise landing page. Ignore the message “This course is currently unavailable to students”, and go to the top right-hand corner, you will see a link labelled ‘Log In’.
- Under ‘External user login only’, enter your username and password. If this is your first time accessing the Rise platform, you can create an account using the ‘Create New Account’ button in the bottom right-hand corner of the page. Please use the email address and full name details you would like it to be associated with your digital badge, which you will receive upon successful completion of the course. Make a note of your username, as you will need this to sign in. If you forget your username, you can request a password reset email, which will include your username.
- You will receive an email at the address you supplied. Follow the instructions to confirm your account.
- Once you have created your guest account, return to the original course link and click it again.
- You may be asked to sign in again. If so, use the external account credentials you have just created. If you have forgotten these details, you can request a password reset email.
Once signed in, you will be able to enrol on and start the course. We hope you enjoy the course!
If you have issues with accessing the course please contact us via ngulko@lincoln.ac.uk or Sanlie.Middelberg@nwu.ac.za
This micro-credential course is designed under the Student Women Economic Empowerment Programme (SWEEP), implemented in collaboration with the British Council, and hosted by the Entrepreneurship Development in Higher Education (EDHE) programme under Universities South Africa (USAf).
The course designers:
Dr. Leonie Greyling (North-West University), Dr. Mamorena Matsoso (University of Johannesburg), Prof. Liz Warren (Manchester Metropolitan University), Prof. Nadia Gulko (University of Lincoln), Prof Sanlie Middelberg (North-West University), Krimson.