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Description
The project aimed to strengthen the skills of young inactive women on maternity leave or caring for children, to equip them with skills, improve their potential in re-entering the labor market or start their own business. The consortium developed a high-quality training programme which was provided to women free of charge.
Over 2 years 1000+ young mothers in 7 EU countries (Cyprus, Italy, Lithuania, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Spain) took part in 2-3 months entrepreneurship and digital skills training programs that were provided by the professionals specialising in IT or business topics, the workshops were accompanied with experience sharing sessions, where industry professionals and entrepreneurs shared their knowledge. During the training program free childcare services were provided for the participants to ensure equal opportunities to attend the trainings.
Different methodologies were adopted to ensure effective learning – classroom learning with additional learning encouraged by homework assignments, additional reading. To keep the participants engaged throughout the program, they were assigned individual projects – entrepreneurship course participants developed business plans whereas digital skills course participants created their own website or e-commerce platform.
After the program mothers acquired new knowledge, skills and motivation, were connected with relevant company networks, employers, businesses, investors, mentors to gain useful contacts for future employment and to help their business grow. The experience shared by entrepreneurs provided mothers with useful knowledge and motivation to overcome their fears. Potential employers introduced to industry opportunities and gave better understanding of what qualifications employers are looking for, what is the career path in IT industry.
After successful implementation of the project, 180+ mothers found a job and 80+ businesses were launched, creating even more employment places.
Summary of project results
Mommypreneurs aimed to strengthen the skills of inactive women, equip them with digital and/or entrepreneurship skills, improve their potential in re-entering the labour market or starting their own business. Over 2 years 1024 young mothers in 7 EU countries took part in 2-3 months training programmes – digital and entrepreneurship skills courses. The training was provided by professional trainers specializing in IT or entrepreneurship topics. The workshops were accompanied by experience sharing sessions, where industry professionals and entrepreneurs shared their knowledge and skills. Different methodologies were adopted during the training to ensure effective learning – the core was classroom learning (i.e., face-to-face or online weekly classes) with additional learning encouraged by homework assignments, additional reading, reviewing the covered material etc. To keep the participants engaged throughout the program, they were also assigned individual projects – entrepreneurship course participants were working on a business plan whereas digital skills course participants were encouraged to create their own website or e-commerce platform.
After the program participants were connected with relevant company networks, employers, local businesses, investors, mentors to gain useful contacts for future employment and to help their business grow. The experience shared provided them with useful knowledge and, most importantly, motivation to overcome their fears and cope with the challenges that may come along the way. Potential employers introduced industry opportunities and gave better understanding of what qualifications potential employers are looking for, what is the career path in IT industry. After successful implementation of the project, more than 180 participants found a job and more than 170 businesses were launched, creating even more employment places.
Mommypreneurs project team is proud of the impact this initiative had in all partner countries. Effective communication strategy ensured that the project could successfully reach the target audience and address their needs with the offered courses in entrepreneurship and digital skills. The project allowed to equip the mothers with the necessary skills and created a community of motivated mothers still active outside the project.