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 Miglė Kazakevičiūtė has graduated from veterinary studies at the college. She decided to attend a course encouraged by a girlfriend. “I thought that learning something new in IT would be really useful in life,” said the training participant. Migė chose to study a data analytics degree 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? What I enjoyed most was the presentation of the theory through real examples of practice, the direct communication between the teacher and the audience, and the warm and pleasant atmosphere during all the training.
What was the most difficult thing for you during the training? The most difficult thing was to apply the acquired knowledge properly in performing practice tasks.
What motivated you to complete the course? I think that the girls I was studying with and the relevance of the training topic in today’s society were the most motivating.
What are the three most important things you will take from this training? 1. Lots of positive. 2. New ideas. 3. Theoretical knowledge.
What professional skills did you acquire during the training? I gained knowledge of how to work with MS Excel and Power BI programs. I learned how to handle data, how to process and present it properly.
Would you recommend this training to your friend? Why? Yes, I would recommend it to people who want to expand their IT knowledge baggage.
Have these trainings changed your future plans? Definitely yes, I am already working as a data analysis specialist.
