Coding for Migrant Women Returners (C4MWR) Erasmus Project

Project Title

Coding for Migrant Women Returners (C4MWR)

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships for adult education

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2020

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses; ICT – new technologies – digital competences; Migrants’ issues

Project Summary

The project C4MWR aims to support those who work in adult education and community development work and provide services to migrant women who are potential returners into the labour market by acquiring and developing skills in Coding, Artificial Intelligence and Robotics. There will be a focus on upskilling these front line workers in fun and game-inspired, non-formal educational methods in the area of coding. The project will present innovative methods of utilising methodologies to help increase access to affordable, high quality and relevant skills training in the digital age.

Through this project, there is an immediate objective of upskilling adult educators, and a subsequent objective of engaging with and upskilling migrant women returners through non-formal methods.

Our project methods include the development of three main outputs:

1. A hands-on fun-packed training curriculum and workshops with non-formal approaches to Coding, A.I. and Robotics; learning by building and Coding Robots and understanding A.I. through gamification in a non-formal and fun environment. The workshops will be the gateway for adult educators to understand how Robotics, Coding and A.I. are used in the industry, why there is a need to teach these futuristic skills to the women returners, and how they should make learning fun for their students.

2.A set of resources for adult educators on how to stimulate interest in coding, A.I, and robotics and how to support the introduction of these topics through non-formal educational methods– This will help professionals in adult education to develop their own skills base.

3.A Methodology and Implementation strategy that promotes cross-sectoral dialogue and the involvement in the community development sector, in terms of supporting the training of staff, managers, and educators at a local and regional level.

A DIFFERENT APPROACH
The term “non-formal education” and its recognition on a global scale came about in the 1960s when consolidated educational institutions had to face an economic crisis and received questions about their lacking ability to adapt to a new society. Since then it has been a driving force in education, not least in the digital age where people have literally “learnt how to learn” and have taught themselves to become digitally literate. We believe that the project can contribute greatly to upskilling adult educators as facilitators. This is especially important in the adult education sector as young people have learned to become digitally literate in a quicker and more effective way than most adults who do not already work in the computing industry. The non-formal approach to teaching coding is paramount in this sector in order to close the skills gap faced by women returners whilst still remaining engaging and relevant.

These methods, together with our approach to embedding transferable employability skills (as redefined key competences; EC, Jan 2018) within the informal learning content will deliver an innovative practice to benefit migrant women returners in this digital era, and provide a project legacy of open educational resources for adult educators.

THE NEED & DEMAND
The dynamic of the labour market has changed greatly over the last few years, and many jobs that are currently in demand didn’t even exist 10 years ago. The EC’s “White Paper on the Future of Europe” states that “most of us will end up working in job types that do not yet exist”. This sentiment is also true for migrant women returning to work following periods of unemployment. The jobs they left may change and evolve in the time that they are not in them.

Policymakers and employers are putting more and more pressure on educational providers to challenge them to adapt to the digital age and help their learners build transferable skills in order to respond to labour market demand. In order to respond to such a daunting future scenario, as adult education organisations, working with migrant women returners, we need to do more to equip these women with the appropriate skills for re-entering the labour market, address “the need for an inclusive, lifelong-learning based and innovation-driven approach to education and training” (EC, 14 Dec 2017), and provide them with the appropriate recognition for such skills whether gained non-formally or formally.

The problem identified is the lack of skills, competencies, and knowledge in the area of coding and robotics for community development workers and adult educators, the issue is that the normal channel of consideration in the national school curriculum in most countries to support its introduction has failed to materialise and for many adults, it did not even exist when they were of school age. The organisations represented in the project have all developed as a direct response for the interest and enthusiasm migrant women returners have shown for this topic and the lack of response to this need so far in formal adult education is non-existent.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 209735 Eur

Project Coordinator

School of Coding Limited & Country: UK

Project Partners

• ELDERBERRY AB
• SYMPLEXIS
• Coopérative d’Activité et d’Emploi dans les Services A la Personne et la Silver Economie
• Saathi House
• INSTITUTO PARA EL FOMENTO DEL DESARROLLO Y LA FORMACION SL