Background
Smoothing the gender gap in the IT sector
Studies on women active in Information Technology (IT) unveil that higher number of women who take up a digital career would benefit the digital industry, women themselves and Europe's economy. A change in policy is needed, particularly due to an alarming drop in female ICT graduates and the limited presence of women in the STEM area (science, technology, engineering and math) reflecting thus the gender gap acknowledged in the ICT sector.
Aims & Benefits
Our aim is twofold:
- to empower adult women who don’t have native digital skills and need to acquire them to enter the labour market equipped with new professional skills and qualifications, and;
- to stimulate the new generation of young girls who have native digital skills empowering them to enter the STEM arena, thus smoothing the ICT gender gap.
Empowering adult women
The WPC project will create an integrated educational framework to help adult women to acquire and advance their programming skills thus boosting their participation in the STEM/ICT sector. The WPC framework involves the dissemination of KEY INTERNET OF THINGS (IoT) CONCEPTS and the elaboration of a new curriculum comprising engaging interactive multimedia training material, such as text, video tutorials and a videogame. The project starts on September 2017 and ends on August 2020.
Intergenerational mentoring an learning
The WPC project intends to involve in the learning process young girls as well, who will act as mentors for their mothers, guiding them to the digital era as it is being applied to all aspects of their personal and work life.
Innovation
Open & innovative game-based curriculum, training & learning
- A new curriculum and a new expert profile introducing an innovative combination of ICT tools and a workshop-based experiential delivery methodology addressing adult women and their young daughters;
- An online training delivery environment facilitated by Social Learning Motivational functionalities will be developed, which will incorporate the training course, functioning as a knowledge dissemination platform facilitating collaboration between learners and trainers through the use of micro-learning features and motivational mechanics for learner engagement;
- Work-based training events in 7 countries (UK, BELGIUM, BULGARIA, ITALY, NETHERLANDS, ROMANI, SLOVENIA) will be organized targeting adult women and their young daughters who will collaborate in the creation of a VIDEOGAME for increasing work-based active learning;
- A Framework for the Recognition of Skills and Achievements acquired by learners based on the Open Badges Recognition Framework;
- A virtual and physical community space in each partners’ country, the Social Learning Community (SLC), which will be enabling women to discuss and share mutual interests and concerns about learning as well as to explore and share solutions with regard to common professional dilemmas.
