Interview with WOMEN4IT training participant Egle

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 Eglė Šmoilovaitė is a transport manager by education who is currently looking for a job. She decided to take the course because she wanted to face new challenges and test herself in the field of IT. Egle 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? Concrete and clear, theoretical and practical examples of training, which made it easier to understand and assimilate the information taught.

What was the most difficult thing for you during the training? There was a great lack of “live” conversation, but it did not hinder learning.

What motivated you to complete the course? I think the same interest in these courses and the material taught, which encouraged each time to actively participate in the training and, of course, to complete it.

What are the three most important things you will take from this training? 1. Motivation, because I got a lot of it during the training. 2. Knowledge of projects and their coordination. 3. Newly established acquaintance.

What professional skills did you acquire during the training? Project coordination skills, which include a particularly large amount of professional knowledge – time, financial and other resource planning, opportunity assessment, teamwork and much more.

Would you recommend this training to your friend? Why? Yes, of course, because it is a great training, both to deepen the existing knowledge and to acquire new ones. It was a great experience that I would recommend to anyone looking to discover something new.Have these trainings changed your future plans? Yes, really so.