2023

      Halfway through the Femme Forward Startup Founders Program We can hardly believe it – our Femme Forward Startup Founders Pilot Training in Germany is in full swing, and time is flying by! Originally, we had planned to publish an article at the beginning of this exciting journey, but the demand was so high that our course with nearly 50 participants filled up in no time. Now that we’ve reached the halfway point of the curriculum, let’s take a look at what has happened so far and the exciting experiences we’ve already gathered. But let’s start from the beginning of our programme: In September 2023, we, the team from tech and teach gGmbH, invited everyone to the physical kick-off event in Düsseldorf, and we were overwhelmed by the response – over 70 guests accepted our invitation! After warm words of welcome, including those from Theresa Winkels, the head of the Düsseldorf Economic Development Office, we dived deep into the „Women in Tech“ theme with keynotes, including Güncem Campagna (CEO tech and teach gGmbH) followed by a panel discussion. During the subsequent get-together, we had the opportunity to further explore these important topics, and the feedback was simply overwhelming. Our guests couldn’t have been more diverse and inspiring. On October 9th, the moment finally arrived, and the 8-week online curriculum of the Femme Forward Startup Program began. Over a dozen experts and lecturers from various fields are conducting online live workshops, Q&A sessions, and providing inspiring insights into their individual career paths. In total, the program encompasses over 60 hours of training content, where our participants are learning the fundamentals to either start their own tech startup or fill knowledge gaps in various areas. You can find more information about this here: https://www.techandteach.de/ In parallel, we encourage networking and support within our exclusive Femme Forward Slack community. The diversity of our participants‘ backgrounds is truly remarkable, encompassing various subjects, industries, age groups, and origins. We, at tech and teach, are excited about the individual and enthusiastic feedback we’ve received, which hints at the impact Femme Forward is having on the careers and founding stories of our participants. For those who couldn’t join us this time, we recommend signing up for our newsletter to ensure that you’re part of the next cohort of aspiring female startup founders. We look forward to shaping the future of the tech industry together and creating many more inspiring stories. For more information about Femme Forward in Germany, please follow this link: https://www.techandteach.de/ or send an email to Silke Roggermann: silke@techandteach.de (by Silke Roggermann – Programme Manager Femme Forward Startup Founders)    

  Future Tech Careers at Cyprus Computer Society     Nicosia 14 Dec 2023 The free training program offered to women in Cyprus through the Femme Forward project which is co-funded by the European Union and coordinated by Cyprus Computer Society is ending next week. 15 women, who are new to technology or who wanted to upskill have been supported since Oct 2nd by following the AWS re/Start curriculum to gain knowledge, learn skills and ultimately launch a career in tech. Week 11-15 December and 18-22 December are devoted to preparing the participants to take the exam and become AWS certified Cloud Practitioners.    

      Ready for the Italian Chapter of the Future Startup Founders – November 2023 Over 50 ambitious women have applied for the Italian Chapter of Femme Forward – Future Startup Founders, and in less than a week (November 8th is the kick-off), the chosen candidates will embark on a new journey to achieve their career goals in the tech sector! With Femme Forward’s Future Startup Founders, funded by Erasmus+, participants will have the opportunity to dive behind the scenes of one of the most thriving industries right now – the tech startup world. They will acquire new skills and invest in their personal growth. In just 9 weeks, each of them will have a clear understanding of the challenges, opportunities, tools, and best methods to launch their own tech startup, with the support of TOP-IX Consortium, the project’s delivery partner, and a stellar faculty composed of experts and entrepreneurs.

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Discover the Italian chapter of Future Start-up Founders   Caption: TOP-IX is ready to start the Italian chapter of Future Startup Founders The Italian chapter of Future Start-up Founders is organised and managed by TOP-IX (https://top-ix.org) and will start on November 6 for a class of up to 30 participants. Future Start-up Founders is a 8-week, 60-hour free of charge training. The training will be a mix of live and on-demand sessions in which you will learn everything you need to effectively conceive and present your business idea, from field validation to developing a solid business model, from creating a minimum viable product to marketing tactics and the necessary technical fundamentals. Are you interested? Receive more information by answering this simple form where you can leave your data to be contacted by TOP-IX team. Form, as well as the majority of training contents, are in Italian. Or write us to ask for more information: femmeforward@top-ix.org No specific entry skills or other prerequisites are required except curiosity, dedication and the ambition to build one’s own working and entrepreneurial future in the technological field. Check also the news on the TOP-IX website at this link.

  The pilot of Femme Forward in Belgium is thriving! – May 2023     FemmeForward at BeCode First promotion, all pioneers !   FemmeForward learners enjoying the campus in Brussels   The pilot of Femme Forward in Belgium is thriving! Femme Forward is an EU funded project aimed at empowering women with the skills and confidence to launch tech careers, or form new startups. This is delivered by a consortium of experienced social value training providers across multiple countries.This project has been launched in Belgium, in partnership with BeCode, a social impact-driven digital skills and coding school, using an active pedagogy to teach in-demand digital skills to motivated individuals in vulnerable professional situations, helping these untapped talents to meet the needs of the job market. A closer look at the Belgian tech scene and its diversity by Women.Code(BE) reported that, in 2021-2022, only 18.2% of all people working in IT are women . Our coaches Vanessa Rivera Quinones and Maxim Berge are empowering women with technical and soft skills to help them start a new tech career in Belgium. The training happening both online and on-site across multiple campuses and specializations has started a few months ago, with the first learners starting to graduate, making this first iteration a success already.   FemmeForward learners at the Gent campus   FemmeForward students also participated in online events to address the topic of how to grow their network by drawing parallels between computer networking and professional networking. The basic concepts? People and careers! Networking is an essential part of advancing in a field. It is a way for women to connect with other women in tech, share resources, and create a community of support to tackle both opportunities and challenges. In this event, information about other Belgian organizations and initiatives focusing on women in tech such as Women.Code(BE), Clusity, and InspiringFifty were shared with participants. The “welcome” slide to the online event on networking.   Through this project, learners also got the opportunity to get certified as an Amazon Web Service (AWS) Cloud Practitioner, further leveraging their skills in cloud computing and gaining a sought out certification in the tech job market. One of the main benefits was to be able to learn new technologies, as share by a learner:   “Since the IT sector is quite broad, everyone only specializes in their own niche, for example, I learnt about Microsoft products at school. In contrast, during my Femme Forward training with BeCode, I was able to learn a lot about new technologies. In particular, in order to learn cloud computing, this course is essential, offering precise and practical information; the comparison and discussion of material is an integral part. A perfect way to slowly immerse yourself in ICT.” – Emilia Genadieva, FemmeForward Learner, Liège Campus   Stay tuned for the latest updates! We’ll present you soon the first FemmeForward graduates‘ team 🙂    

FEMME FORWARD Market Analysis March 2023 19.1% of ICT specialists in Europe are women. Is it enough? Copyright : Crédit photo : Thomas Chené pour l’APEC Europe is experiencing a shortage of around one million digital experts: 53% of enterprises trying to recruit ICT specialists report difficulties in getting qualified people and only 19.1% of ICT specialists in Europe are women. These are just some of the data you can find in the research we conducted as part of the project. FEMME FORWARD Market Analysis explores the world of digital jobs in Europe and focuses on the most in-demand skill clusters: artificial intelligence and machine learning, cloud computing, and big data. The study highlights the underrepresentation of women in the tech industry in participating countries in education, employment and startup ecosystems and the main pain points are unconscious gender bias, lack of support, and a shortage of STEM graduates. FEMME FORWARD Market Analysis confirms the assumptions on which FEMME FORWARD’s programmes are based as both the training programmes: The Future Tech careers and The Start-up Founders Programme encourage women to participate in the digital Economy with the goal to address the skills shortage in the sector, also leading to more innovation and diverse perspectives in technology. Download the Full report at FEMME FORWARD Market Analysis.

FEMME FORWARD in Milan 7th-8th of April All together for the kick-off meeting, to start working off right!   FEMME FORWARD steering committee   On April 7th and 8th, we met in Milan for a two-day working section to set the details of the project, to schedule next steps and finalize the planned strategies to achieve our goals and share them with all of you. FEMME FORWARD has ambitious and concrete goals: just to name a few, we will do more than 1,000 skills assessments, we will have 330 women for the Future Tech Carriers Program and 50 for the Future Start-up Founders Program. We’ll work involving SMEs and VET providers, women and all people who are looking for a more digital, equal, inclusive society. We are ready to take up the challenge and you?