20 January 2022, Brussels!

WOMEN4IT Final Conference is just the beginning for more Women in Digital Jobs of the Future.

The EEA & Norway Grants co-financed project was held on the 20^th of January 2022 which was originally planned as the final conference in a hybrid format in Brussels.

Women4IT – an initiative and a project funded by the EEA and Norway Grants Fund for Youth Employment – desires to empower young women across Europe to enter the digital economy. By providing fully funded, individually tailored digital skills training reflecting current market needs, Women4IT equips women with a set of in-demand digital competencies and employability guidance, setting them on a path to a future-proof career in technology.

Between 2019 and January 2022, Women4IT successfully implemented its first piloting efforts in 7 European countries: Greece, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Romania, and Spain, under the leadership of LIKTA and with the expertise of the European Centre for Women and Technology and the stakeholder support of DIGITAL EUROPE. The consortium has so far trained 646 young women, out of whom 454 found full-time employment in digital jobs or became entrepreneurs in the first three months after the course. In addition, more than 2.500 tested their digital skills with the Women4IT profiling tool, and 35.000 women and girls were reached with awareness-raising campaigns.

At the conference in Brussels:

• Piloting partners shared their experiences of the implementation of the project and informed about the innovative tools and solutions developed,
• Women4IT graduates discussed their experience throughout the project, the benefits of taking the Women4IT courses, and their plans for the future,
• Leading stakeholder representatives discussed the ways forward in bridging the gender gap in digital: from corporate recruitments strategies, through impactful mentorship, to private-public partnerships and an overarching EU strategy for digital skills.

Last but not least the consortium recognized the stakeholders who particularly contributed to the success of the project with the Women4IT Employability Awards given to 15 Employers and 14 Ambassadors. Just a few weeks before the event the Funding Organizations have prolonged WOMEN4IT until the end of January 2023: the training for Jobs of the Future will continue in six piloting countries and the success stories will be disseminated to new regions across Europe.