Over the past nine months, over 500 girls from Bulgaria, Greece, Poland, Romania and Spain have actively participated in online entrepreneurship and digital skills workshops funded by the European Institute of Innovation and Technology. The workshops were delivered by the Certiport Europe consortium across the five countries and were designed in such a way that they ignite the entrepreneurial spirit among girls. Certiport strongly believes that with the right training and inspiration, girls will thrive in the digital economy and society and will be able to fully participate in building a bright future in Europe through innovation.
Europe needs a digitally skilled talent pool. Yet, the European Commission’s Report ‘Women in the Digital Age’ highlights that despite the growing demand for ICT specialists and digital profiles, the percentage of Europeans with ICT-related education is actually decreasing. While this is a common trend for both genders, there are significantly fewer women taking up ICT related education and jobs than men and only 17% of ICT specialists are women.
Martin Kern, EIT Director
This project was part of the Digital Education Action Plan adopted by the European Commission, which supports the development of digital competences in education across Europe. More specifically, it delivers on the ‘Training in Digital and Entrepreneurial Skills for Girls’ action, focused on promoting positive role-models and enhancing entrepreneurial and digital skills to tackle the gender gap and boost female participation in science, technology and business.
During 2020, the Certiport Europe consortium organised 2 face to face and 18 online workshops through which 550 girls had the chance to be inspired to develop their entrepreneurial and digital competences and understand how they can improve their skills to better engage in the tech and digital sectors. Throughout the workshops, inspirational role-models shared their experience and enthusiasm with the participants and provided inspiration for the future. Although the workshops have come to a close at the end of October 2020, every participating girl will have the opportunity to continue to develop her entrepreneurial or digital skills through a free 12-month practice test license provided by Certiport Europe.
The workshops have sparked a great deal of interest among girls and have opened a pathway for the Certiport partners to plan for more such events in 2021.
Background and contacts
EIT – European Institute of Innovation and Technology
The EIT was created in 2008 to drive Europe’s ability to innovate. The EIT is a unique EU initiative, the only one to fully integrate business, education and research in Europe’s largest innovation network. The Institute supports the development of dynamic pan-European partnerships among leading universities, research labs and companies. These are called Innovation Communities and each tackles a specific global challenge. Together with their leading partners, they offer a wide range of innovation and entrepreneurship activities across Europe. This includes education courses that combine technical and entrepreneurial skills, business creation and acceleration services and innovation driven research projects.
For more information visit eit.europa.eu & follow the EIT on Twitter @EITeu
EIT media contact: press@eit.europa.eu, +36 307 889 875
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