Swat

4 min.

Funded by the Fund for the Digital Republic

The Supporting Women, Arousing Talents (Swat) project, funded by the Fund for the Digital Republic - Social Enterprise (Futura Future call for proposals), promotes training courses on digital skills (basic, advanced and specialisation levels) for 250 women between 18 and 50 years of age who are excluded from the labour market or have unsatisfactory contractual arrangements and low salaries. The programme operates throughout Italy with a modular, progressive and flexible training offer tailored to the needs of the individual recipients and aimed at promoting their professional inclusion. Traditional hard skill courses are complemented by supplementary proposals to stimulate soft and life skills, networking and socialisation. Beneficiaries have access to an innovative, flexible, sustainable course that can be reconciled with their own lives. Finally, the cooperative and synergistic work of stakeholders is encouraged, with particular regard to the business world, so that the project can have a significant impact and become a replicable model.

Total budget: 713,432 euros | FMD: 350,778 euros

Partnership: Fondazione Mondo Digitale (lead partner), Arci Aps, Fondazione Adecco ETS, ING Bank Milan Branch

Network: Arci throughout Italy and a network of for-profit organisations

Duration: 15 months, from 6 July 2023 to 6 October 2024

Territory: national

Objectives

to increase women's basic and advanced digital skills, transferring indispensable and in-demand skills in the world of work aimed at professional integration
to facilitate the participation of women in training courses, with services to support the reconciliation of personal and professional life
facilitate the matching of supply and demand of new job opportunities, based on the skills required by the market in the digital sector and in the professions of the future.

Direct target group: 250 women between 18 and 50 years old

Women with low levels of education (primary school and/or secondary school up to high school diploma), unemployed, not in employment, temporarily excluded from the world of work, foreign women included in reception programmes without basic and/or advanced digital skills.
Women with high levels of education (university degree), working but with precarious contractual positions or low salary levels, with inadequate and/or limited basic and/or advanced digital skills.

Indirect recipients: 2,500 people to be reached thanks to awareness-raising activities and the dissemination of training materials, and to the online and local communication and marketing campaign.

Main activities

Project management and coordination
Involvement of the target audience
Development and configuration of the web platform
Definition and realisation of training courses for the acquisition and improvement of basic, advanced and professional digital skills
Activation of complementary and support services for the reconciliation of personal and working life
Guidance and support for job placement
Monitoring and evaluation
Communication and awareness raising

Methodology: multidisciplinary, inclusive, sustainable, managed by a pool of professionals with different specialisations. The proposed formats combine formal and informal learning, with synchronous and asynchronous activities, integrated in the workplace, in physical spaces, at home, in the domestic space, or while travelling on public transport, in virtual classrooms and other digital spaces (escape rooms, metaverse, etc.). Theoretical lessons alternate with practical exercises. The modular training is mainly available online, but physical locations are open to accommodate beneficiaries who do not have an internet connection or basic skills to connect (difficulty in managing platforms, using email, etc.). Each physical location has a tutor available to facilitate access to training. Participants can customise their learning levels based on their starting skills and on the skills acquired through the training courses they have followed.

Method of delivery: online training with some face-to-face meetings.

Expected results

Acquisition and enhancement of basic and/or advanced digital skills.
Dissemination and promotion of training opportunities to inform and raise awareness directly and indirectly among the target audience
Interception, activation, support and accompaniment of the target audience
Design and activation of innovative and effective methodologies and formats to facilitate access to initiatives by the target audience
Integration of training sessions for the development and/or improvement of non-cognitive skills (soft or life skills) complementary to digital skills
Integration of support services to reconcile personal and working life with the training course
Facilitation of the meeting between job supply and demand
Offer of opportunities for job placement or improvement of contractual conditions

Ongoing monitoring: this activity allows us to monitor the implementation status of the activities and the degree of participation of the beneficiaries. Monitoring is carried out through quantitative and qualitative surveys and is guided by the indicators selected during the project definition phase.

Evaluation process: the methodology of ‘Real-time Evaluation’ as modified by the Fondazione Mondo Digitale for social innovation processes (RTE-SI) is used. The impact assessment is carried out by Evaluation Lab (selected by the donor), in collaboration with all the partners.