Re-start women 2.0 Erasmus Project

General information for the Re-start women 2.0 Erasmus Project

Re-start women 2.0 Erasmus Project
July 7, 2020 12:00 am
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Project Title

Re-start women 2.0

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 vocational education and training

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2014

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Gender equality / equal opportunities; Open and distance learning; New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses

Project Summary

The project Re-Start Women 2.0 aims to facilitate the return of women to the working life after family leave. At present, still mainly women make a break in their careers to care for the children. After this professional interruption, it is often difficult for these women to re-enter the labour market and find a suitable job, which is partly caused by a lack of up to date professional knowledge. The e-learning platform, which was developed further, translated and transferred in the course of this project, can already be used during family leave and thus contributes to these women proactively addressing their knowledge gaps regarding updated professional skills. This contributes to a reduction of the duration of the break in their careers as they can earlier return to working life as qualified employees.
In the context of this project, an e-learning platform containing learning contents relevant for a professional re-entrance was expanded by further modules, translated into the languages of the partner countries and the contents were enriched with regards to country-specific requirements. The e-learning platform is now available to women who want to prepare their return to a job, many institutions as e.g. education providers, equal opportunities representatives and political, economic and labour market representatives. The platform includes learning contents covering the topics office/administration, management, communication, intercultural competences, ICT and the Competence pass, which documents the informally acquired skills gained during parental leave. In addition, the element Wiki-Fem Professional was developed, a module for interactive European exchange of information and experiences. For all interested parties, Wiki-Fem Professional provides the opportunity to upload, share and use professional, practical and application-specific information and learning contents. Thus, it contributes to a professional as well as generic communication between the women and other users as well as to a constant further development and update of the platform. The contents of the “services” module and the uploaded information lead to an accessibility of practical professional solutions and information throughout Europe. This information is valuable to create a better understanding of the situation women face when returning to working life (challenges, requirements of employers, necessary competences) in the different countries, as well to politically improve the professional perspectives of women returning to working life.
User-friendliness and contents of the whole platform were tested during two rounds (each) of pilot courses in the United Kingdom and the Netherlands, which led to further improvement of the platform. Due to Europe-wide and interactive use of the e-learning platform beyond the end of the project as well as the opening of the platform to the public (creating a publicly available educational resource), the project is very sustainable. Advantages of this Europe-wide available e-learning offer are the omission of the journey to the training location and the opportunity to flexibly and autonomously assign time to the online training, which makes it suitable also for mothers of small children or women living in rural areas.
In all modules, low-threshold pedagogical approaches were used aiming to create a transparent learning environment also for women with no or little previous knowledge. Furthermore, all modules are holistic, integrating the life situation of women returning to the workforce into the formulation of exercises, thus facilitating the application of the new knowledge. To promote the virtual mobility, which is a requirement in today’s professional life, the platform was optimised for mobile devices.
By reaching out to a large target group, the project results can make a contribution to reach the aim of the European Union to increase the percentage of adults in vocational education to 15% as women are supported when refreshing their skills.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 192438 Eur

Project Coordinator

Institut für technologieorientierte Frauenbildung e.V. & Country: DE

Project Partners

  • Ustanova za obrazovanje odraslih Dante
  • Stichting Multicultureel Vrouwencentrum Jasmijn
  • WIDOWS AND ORPHANS INTERNATIONAL (WOI)
  • INTRA MOENIA – SEEDS FOR CHANGE