Professional career guidance for women in management positions in the field of digital competence

The number of working women in European countries has been increasing for a long time. However, the proportion of women and men in management positions is not comparable. This gender inequality ha...

DIGIGEN aimed to create an up-skilling programme that enables guidance professionals to design their counselling approach for women in digital leadership positions, taking into account current scientific findings and individual situations. Improving the personal career chances of women leaders adds up as an indirect additional objective. The overarching target group was organisations in the (further) education sector that will establish the DIGIGEN up-skilling programme as a training course. They are the addressees of the developed concept and benefit indirectly from the contents. A direct target group are guidance professionals (e.g. in Human Resource Management (HRM), career and coaching services, etc.). The counselling support for (future) female managers makes women an indirect target group. In the long run, these three groups benefit equally from DIGIGEN. Organisations will find a ready-to-use course concept (up-skilling programme) to offer training for guidance professionals. Guidance professionals can improve their skills by attending a course or by self-directed learning on the web platform. Female leaders will benefit from better guidance or through self-directed learning on the web platform.

Within the project, a competence profile was elaborated to clarify the needs of counsellors and female managers as well as the general status quo. This competence profile was composed of (1) a literature review, (2) semi-structured interviews with counsellors and (3) semi-structured questionnaires for female leaders. The interviews and questionnaires involved 51 guidance professionals and 104 female leaders. The results provided good insight into the needs of guidance professionals on the one hand and (future) female leaders on the other. These insights were then the basis for designing the DIGIGEN up-skilling programme, which included a curriculum, a didactical framework, and ready-to-use training materials. These were tested by means of an expert review and three national piloting events. In the last step, all project results were taught exploratively in face-to-face courses and uploaded to the DIGIGEN website. The website provides self-directed learning opportunities and support for teachers and trainers of educational organisations (see https://digi-gen.eu).

Competence profile – literature review and needs analysis ■ 3 x Literature Report; one each for Germany, the Netherlands, and Hungary (EN) ■ 1 x Transnational Literature Synthesis; integrating the three Literature Reports (EN) ■ 4 x Literature Summary; short version in each national language (EN/DE/HU/NL) ■ 1 x Research Report; summary and synthesis of the interviews and questionnaires (EN) ■ 4 x Research Summary; short version in each national language (EN/DE/HU/NL) Up-skilling programme – concept, curriculum, and resource package ■ 1 x Didactical Framework; explaining the didactics of the programme (concept) (EN/DE/HU/NL/LT) ■ 1 x Structural Handbook; providing an overview of the modules (curriculum) (EN/DE/HU/NL/LT) ■ 1 x Step-by-Step Instructions; detailed instructions on the training material (trainer guide) (EN/DE/HU/NL/LT) ■ 7 x Presentation; presentations on 'introduction' + 5 topics + 'final reflection' (resources) (EN/DE/HU/NL/LT) ■ 8 x Reader; complementing background information for all content (participants material) (EN/DE/HU/NL) ■ 2 x Problem-Based Learning Libraries with 17 x Readers and 4 x Case Studies (EN/DE/HU/NL) ■ 1 x Self-Evaluation Form for Guidance Professionals (EN/DE/HU/NL) Testing – piloting events and expert review ■ 3 x Piloting Event; one each in Germany, Hungary and the Netherlands ■ 1 x Expert Review; conducted in the Netherlands with training experts (EN) ■ 1 x Testing Report; summarising all improvements made along the development process (EN) Implementing – face-to-face training and online platform ■ 6 x Training Courses; two each in Germany, Hungary and the Netherlands (face-to-face) ■ 1 x Webpage; featuring all products and the up-skilling programme (including self-learning) (EN/DE/HU/NL/LT) ■ 4 x Multiplier Event; national dissemination of the up-skilling programme and project ■ 1 x Flyer and Poster; national dissemination of the up-skilling programme and project (EN/DE/HU/NL/LT) ■ Overall dissemination of the project (EN/DE/HU/NL/LT) Reflecting – evaluation and recommendation ■ 1 x Webpage Evaluation Report; summarising feedback on the website (EN) ■ 1 x Recommendation Report; critical reflection and further usage of the results (EN)