Women4IT is a project that aims to develop young women’s digital competences, thus improving their employability. The mission of the project is to create attractive employment opportunities for young people, to organize jobs for women in the technology sector and to expand the partnership network with employers in order to try out new employment solutions.
One of the most important parts of the project is the development of a new online tool that allows participants to assess their competencies, compare their skills and job profiles, and offer the most appropriate learning program. This goal is achieved in the form of training, where participants have the opportunity to complete courses that are tailored to the needs of digital profession profiles.
In 2021 February and March, the training part of the Women4IT project took place in Lithuania, which was implemented by the Baltic Institute of Educational Technologies (BETI) together with the Training Organization Group. The training, which lasts 160 hours, was successfully completed by 100 participants from all over Lithuania. When starting the training, the girls chose one of four possible digital professions – project coordinator, customer service specialist, junior web developer or data analyst.
Participants agreed to share their experiences of participating in the Women4IT project trainings, how they learned about them, what led them to choose these trainings, what new knowledge they gained and whether the trainings had an impact on their future life goals. Training participant Ugnė Urniežiūtė is currently studying aviation management and is independently studying human resource management. She became interested in project coordination activities after seeing an example on the Instagram platform: “I began to realize that I can apply project coordination methods in my daily life, so I applied.” Therefore, for the participant, the Women4IT course turned out to be a great opportunity to consolidate the existing knowledge and prepare for effective entry into the labor market. Ugnė chose to study the project coordinator’s study program and successfully completed it. We invite you to get acquainted with her training impressions and experience:
What did you like most about the training? The most memorable of the trainings was the teaching methodology of the lecturer Donatas Erlingis. Not only did he want to share with us his accumulated knowledge about project coordination, but at the same time we explained about self-confidence, sales, sales topics, without which I cannot imagine a competent project manager. He also remembered that we immediately put the learned theory into practice, usually even the same lecture.
What was the most difficult thing for you during the training? I will not hide, combining university lectures with teaching was difficult. Because the training was intensive, from 8.30 to 16.30, and between them I had 1 or 2 lectures at the university. But here I was saved by good planning skills, and even after skipping certain topics, I tried to make up with the help of the team.
What motivated you to complete the course? Lecturer Donatas Erlingis. I felt like he was the person from whom I now had to learn and take over as much experience as possible.
What are the three most important things you will take from this training? 1. A competent leader (leader) in a team means a lot. 2. Project coordination is not rocket science, it is freely available and needs to be applied in everyday life. 3. A well-established dating site can open many doors in the future.
What professional skills did you acquire during the training? I learned to work with Gantt Chart, Risk Management Plan, WBS, Raci Matrix, I gained teamwork skills (I was responsible for a team of 5 people), I learned how to plan-set project budgets and improved my presentation skills. .
Have these trainings changed your future plans? In fact, no. But it enshrined my knowledge of the chosen path I am already taking.
