Women4IT - Spain

The Women4IT project enabled women aged 18 to 29 from vulnerable social situations to increase their level of employability, by training in the digital sector and thus able to acquire and develop their digital skills, reducing the social gap and, above all, the digital divide. The project officially concluded in January 2023, but its resources and toolkits remain available and accessible to anyone. 

Background and context

Technology and the internet are key resources for girls and young people, but the lack of opportunities and skills, and in many cases discrimination, prevent them from using these tools and create digital content in the same way as boys. If they do not have the same access to technology, women, girls and young people cannot participate at the same level in an increasingly digitally connected society. This lack of participation also affects their ability to demonstrate publicly and drive forward the changes they advocate. In addition, the low representation of women in the creation of tools and the design of digital content can exacerbate previous inequalities.

The digital divide also has a negative impact on countries’ growth and development potential. If 600 million more women and girls added to digital technologies over the years, this would mean an increase of EUR 11.000-15.000 million in overall GDP. All this demonstrates the importance of designing and implementing such projects, especially in the times we are living globally.

Women4IT brings many and many benefits:

• It promotes youth employment.
• It reduces the gap for digital specialists.
• The participation of women and girls in digital jobs and ICT related professions is increasing.

In addition, it is a project involving a variety of actors, which shows the impact it has generated in a variety of environments because:

• Based on industry demands, the opinion of relevant companies has been obtained.
• It was based on the initial situation of each participant, thus involving society as a whole.
• Training has been adapted on an individual basis.
• Mentors who accompanied all beneficiaries during the process were involved.

Why is this a good practice? 

The 'Women4IT' project officially ended on 31 January 2023 - marking the end of a 4-year strong partnership between 9 European countries, and tons of lessons learnt. 

During the project, over 900 young women were trained in the fields of work demanded in the ICT sector. The training was accompanied by various career support measures such as mentoring, job shadowing sessions as well as empowerment and employability workshops, which led to more than 70% of training participants finding new jobs and continuing their education in the field of technology. The project also developed valuable tools and methodologies that will contribute to the continuation of similar initiatives in the future.

In November 2022, Women4IT’s final international event was held in Brussels, where project partners shared their experiences and techniques used in piloting the training in 7 EU countries: Ireland, Greece, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Romania and Spain. The event provided an opportunity for the partners to answer questions about the project, recommend good practices and exchange with various digital sector stakeholders at the EU level, from industry representatives to policy-makers, to civil society organisations.

Although the Women4IT project has come to an end, its impact and all material will be put to use to attract more women into the ICT field. These resources can be accessed for free and used to replicate the project in other countries and regions in Europe and beyond.