Empowering women

In May 2024 we launched Alpha Females for VentureGarden, in partnership with Anatolia College. This programme aims at offering women equal opportunities to participate in entrepreneurship. 

Alpha Females for VentureGarden focuses on female entrepreneurs and includes 3-month support and training on topics centring on how to establish and run a new business, such as:

• Strategic planning 
• Digital marketing 
• Financing tools and business financials
• Success stories of women entrepreneurs 
  

The programme is addressed to VentureGarden female graduates from Athens and Thessaloniki. A total of 87 women have participated in the first 2 rounds, while the 3rd round will begin soon.

The programme forms part of the wider VentureGarden  initiative, a business accelerator that supports aspiring entrepreneurs in turning their ideas into businesses. It runs in: 

• Athens − At the Alba Hub for Entrepreneurship and Development, the entrepreneurship centre of Alba Graduate Business School, The American College of Greece. 
  
• Thessaloniki − At the Entrepreneurship Hub of ACT (American College of Thessaloniki), a member of Anatolia College.
• Heraklion, Crete − In collaboration with Bizrupt, a local non-profit organisation promoting entrepreneurship and innovation.

In 2026, VentureGarden ran for the first time in:

• Alexandroupoli − Under the auspices of the Municipality of Alexandroupoli.
  
• Patras − In collaboration with Sociact, a local non-profit organisation for social innovation.

It has been specially designed to meet the ever rising needs of the business community in developing their skills.

Grow Aware

We support women over 40 years old who left Alpha Bank voluntarily and want to set up their own social enterprise. 

To this end, we have designed the online Grow Aware Academy in partnership with the Women Do Business NGO. During the 3-month programme, participants receive consultation and training on social entrepreneurship issues, through speeches, special events and seminars.

The key topics include: 

• Developing skills. 
• Balancing work and personal life. 
• Cultivating the spirit of entrepreneurship. 
• Learning about stereotypes and restrictive thinking, with the aim of breaking them down. 

Bridging the Gap is a programme we designed along with the Solidarity Now NGO, aiming at the financial and professional inclusion of unemployed women from vulnerable backgrounds, such as:

• Women with medical conditions or mental health issues
• Single-parent families
• Victims of gender violence
• Young women who are neither studying nor working 
• Long-term unemployed 
• Immigrants
  

The programme supports and empowers the participants, aiming to help them enter the job market. The families and dependants of the participants are also indirectly benefited.

Solidarity Now, which is responsible for running the programme, aspires to bring together and establish a national employer network across Greece, which would provide equal employment opportunities and promote inclusion in various sectors, such as entrepreneurship, technology, tourism, food, manufacturing. 

So, assisted by work advisors, it:

• Supports participants so they may be properly prepared and actively participate in job search, e.g. CV drafting. 
• Helps participants overcome job-entry obstacles, e.g. childcare, work-life balance, social stereotypes.
• Matches participant qualifications to jobs.
• Supports employers in their efforts to find employees. 
• Contributes in raising awareness within companies about the benefits of a multicultural workplace.
  

The programme runs for 12 months. Since 2023, 496 unemployed women from vulnerable social groups have been supported.

In 2021 we launched AWARE (Alpha Women. Authentic, Resilient, Empowered), with the aim of empowering our female executives. Through a range of initiatives, we support their personal development and encourage the cultivation of leadership skills. Discover some of our initiatives:

Trading Alpha Brains (ΤΑΒ)

The Trading Alpha Brains (TAB) mentoring programme brings together women who work in different departments. Through the mentor-mentee relationship, our female employees: 

• Exchange experiences and skills. 
• Share their knowledge. 
• Identify common challenges and ways to overcome them.
  
  

SheforHe

Aiming to promote a leadership mentality, we have created the SheforHe mentoring programme. Women in senior posts at Alpha Bank become mentors and undertake to provide guidance to newly recruited male employees, so they may: 

• Adapt smoothly to the Alpha Bank culture. 
• Develop professionally and achieve their goals.
  
  

Bankers and Daughters

The Bankers and Daughters job-shadowing programme is addressed to daughters of our employees who are undergraduate students. Our aim is to help them with their professional orientation and introduce them to the jobs and demands of the banking sector, especially in departments where men make up the higher percentage of employees.