The EU4Digital Facility will organise a virtual training on women’s mentorship programmes in ICT and innovation on 20 August 2020.
The objective of the training is to share know-how from EU women’s mentorship organisation(s) and best practices on realising women’s mentorship programmes, as well as an introduction to the women’s mentorship programme activities planned by the EU4Digital Facility. Mentorship programmes are one of the solutions to bring more women into technology related work fields as they offer support, increase women’s confidence in their own abilities and help to accelerate career plan development.
In the EU, the active role of women in the digital age is seen as a priority to support economic growth and participation in society. To this end, several initiatives have been implemented in the EU, including the Women in Digital Scoreboard 2019, the Member States’ Declaration of commitment on women in digital and the Declaration on an inclusive company culture.
In Eastern partner countries, the female share of graduates from STEM programmes in 2018 remained below 20%. The highest female share of graduates from STEM programmes was in Georgia with 16%. The share of female graduates in the ICT sector is higher ranging from 18% in Ukraine to 46% in Azerbaijan.
The training will be workshop based and will cover:
- Introduction: Women Go Tech’s approach to improve the situation of women in technology related work fields in Lithuania;
- Group discussions on the following topics:
- Early-interest development in STEM;
- Eliminating implicit biases related to hiring decisions for females in TECH;
- Making workplaces more inclusive for women in tech;
- Creating women’s career advancement opportunities;
- Identifying female role models and mentors in tech sector;
- Closing the pay gap between genders in tech sector.
This training is carried out as part of EU4Digital Facility digital skills thematic area activities, which include a series of trainings, conferences and study visits to support best practice sharing between the EU and Eastern partner countries on digital skills topics. The priorities for trainings were defined by the Digital Skills Network during a Webinar held 29 April 2020.
The EU4Digital Facility supports digital skills development and ICT Innovation through several activities, including the organisation of trainings, conferences and study visits to EU Member States for policy makers and training providers and support for the establishment of women’s mentorship programmes.
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