Digital Families

The world of work has changed fundamentally in recent years. It is increasingly digitized and globalized and demands mobility and flexibility from employees. Then there is the current crisis, which has hit all of Europe and the world hard. The social consequences of the Corona crisis hit women with children particularly because they take on most of the childcare during the pandemic and defer their own job or qualification-related activities. The group of women with a migration background who were already socially weak, poorly qualified and unaccustomed to learning before the crisis threatens to be doubly left behind in the area of digital knowledge and qualifications because the pandemic exponentially increases the use of digital applications and the need for corresponding qualifications and future job market opportunities of these women continue to decline rapidly due to a lack of further training.

Affected are women who have recently arrived in the country as well as women who have resided in Germany for a long time and who have not yet managed to integrate into the local labor market. Due to the widespread and urgency of this problem, an approach is to be tested with the bundled competence of 6 European partner organizations to motivate the target group of underqualified women with children in such a way that they want to expand their digital skills and take part in courses that firstly give them digital skills for everyday life and, secondly, to impart digital knowledge for the job and thereby enable them to have a professional perspective.

The implementation of the project measures should achieve the following goals:

• Target group 1 Low-skilled women with a refugee or migrant background who (have to) neglect their own advanced training, especially in the area of digital skills, and therefore have no or only difficult access to the German labor market due to bringing up children and traditions (and currently also increasingly due to the corona epidemic) Acquired, familiarized and empowered to use this knowledge professionally through qualifications that are tailored to their needs and their circumstances. So that women can take advantage of these offers, their children or their families are involved through parallel offers; conversely, the child-related offers serve as a “lure” for those women who initially have little self-motivation. As a result, the participants acquire the digital skills required for a professional activity today. Overall, this prevents relative dequalification, strengthens their selfconfidence and increases their employability.
• Target group 2 In the course of the project, people in the second phase of life who are interested in working as voluntary “senior experts” and especially in supporting the above target group will be identified and qualified as learning guides. They accompany and advise the participants with regard to course participation and with regard to taking up a job and thus make an important contribution to stabilizing participation and achieving the job-related qualification goals.
• Sustainability of the products The qualification modules developed in the project for the participants and their families (product 1.1 basic module, 1.2 advanced module, 1.3 family module,) will continue to be offered after the end of the project by as many of the German and international partners participating in the project as possible within their own fields of activity ; Through suitable transfer formats, efforts are also made to win over other national and international sponsors (educational institutions and voluntary organizations) for the sustainable implementation of these offers. In order to ensure the implementation of the qualification modules at a high level, a seminar for the future sponsors (product 3.1) and a guide (product 3.2) for implementation in the respective programs will be developed and offered as part of the project.
• Sustainability of the learning support So that a sufficient number of learning guides are available to support the participants after the end of the project, an internationally coordinated learning unit for the learning guides (product II.2) will be developed, tested and made available to all interested parties during the course of the project.
• Networking In order to continuously optimize the participant-related work and to develop further internationally usable products in the future, the project aims to intensify and consolidate the exchange of experiences in this regard. To this end, it initiates the establishment of an exemplary carrier network in the Dortmund area and encourages the establishment of an international network between the project partners and other interested organizations.

For women who have never been employed or have been out of work for a long time and have no experience in dealing with computers, a basic module “everyday computer use” is offered. In this course you will learn the basics of private PC operation, you will also be taught essential knowledge of everyday life and introduced some low-threshold professions.

The course lasts four months and is carried out as close to your home as possible. From the ranks of the participants in the basic module, a group of women emerges who have further professional and technical interests. For these and other women who already have professional experience and / or private experience with the PC, the advanced module “Professional Computer Use Basic” is offered. It introduces women to the use of the office package and, depending on their needs, can include other aspects of professional preparation (e.g. application training). The course immediately follows the beginner’s course so that its graduates can take part and take the next qualification step straight away.

For the children of the participants of all courses, a family module takes place in parallel, which is supervised and organized by the project partner Kitz.Do. It includes experiments that are also suitable for normal rooms, so that the children and mothers can learn side by side. During the holidays, more complex work camps take place in the KITZ.do rooms. The children and their parents have the opportunity to try out a scientifically and technically oriented play program. This opens up further access to their interests and at the same time offers the opportunity to repeat basic skills such as writing and arithmetic again through fun experiments. You will learn about programs that you can use to protect yourself from malware and other risks. In addition, the children receive further information about possible professions in the Mint area.

Not only do the mothers and their children work together on the experiments, the fathers are also involved if possible in order to increase the acceptance of women’s learning and to further improve family structures. By attracting them and by offering a meaningful offer for the children, it is possible to win over women as the actual target group for participation. By attracting them and by offering a meaningful offer for the children, it is possible to win over women as the actual target group for participation.

Another important result of the project is the recruitment of volunteer learning guides who support the women in solving the questions and problems that arise in connection with the qualification and to support them in their professional orientation. The learning guides are qualified for this task by the international learning unit developed in the project (“The Little Mentor Certificate”) and are supported in networking internationally, exchanging their experiences with colleagues from other countries and thereby developing themselves and their work .

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