R&D WOMEN, RURAL AND DIGITAL WOMEN

R&D WOMEN emerged from the urgent need to address the digital gender gap affecting women in rural settings, exacerbated by the technological changes resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic. In rural areas, many women face serious difficulties in accessing the labour market due to the lack of basic digital skills, essential in the current labour environment that has emerged over the past four years. This proposal aimed to empower these women, enabling them to improve their employability and, therefore, their resilience. INNSAMBLE, with its experience in digital transformation and training, together with NEWCO, an IT company, and CONTEXTOS, experts in participatory tools, combined their strengths to develop a flexible and highly practical educational methodology. This approach sought to facilitate the training of rural women by removing barriers and motivating them. To achieve this, the role of trainers was fundamental, so their training was also addressed, aiming to adapt their approaches, tools, and methods to effectively train this group with these specific conditions.

R&D WOMEN aimed to comprehensively address the digital gender gap affecting women in rural areas. The project emerged in response to the exacerbation of these disparities following the pandemic, with the objective of developing a flexible and practical educational methodology. This methodology, based on participatory tools (bootcamps, project-based learning, ...), aimed to equip this group with basic digital skills, crucial for improving their employability in an increasingly digitalised labour market. Beyond directly training rural women, the project also focused on strengthening the skills of adult educators in this environment, ensuring that their preparation would enable them to effectively guide and motivate the learning process. This involved not only improving technical skills but also fostering confidence and the ability to adapt to change among participants. Through this initiative, the aim was to expand access to non-formal and informal learning opportunities for adult women in rural areas, thus addressing the specific educational and employment barriers they face.

In R&D WOMEN, six activities were carried out across 4 consecutive phases. The 1st phase consisted of a competency framework analysis (A1) which identified the best practices for digital skills learning and the conditions of access to ICT for rural women. Based on this analysis, the 2nd phase involved developing a methodology for digital skills trainers (A2) specifically designed for women in rural areas. This methodology focused on guiding adult digital trainers to design and deliver training actions aimed at rural women through intensive and highly practical sessions. Additionally, this activity included the development of various tools to support the training. Once the materials and methodology were developed, they were tested in a 3rd phase. Using the bootcamp formula (short, practical, and participatory), three activities (A3, A4 and A5) implemented pilot trainings in Spain, Portugal, and Greece. These pilots allowed testing and adjusting the methodology based on feedback from trainers and participating women. Each partner was responsible for their own testing, with support from INNSAMBLE as the coordinator. The last phase (A6) focused on activities aimed at ensuring the sustainability and dissemination of project's results.

R&D WOMEN has delivered as its primary outcome a flexible, practical, and effective educational methodology to address the digital training gaps of rural women lacking in this competency area. This method has been thoroughly tested and validated through pilot trainings in various settings, involving 18 adult educators and 74 participating women who fit the target audience addressed. This methodology is provided as a Manual for adult educators to design their own initiatives, accompanied by various tools to support training under this approach. It includes a comprehensive analysis of the digital competencies necessary for rural employability and the pathways to access them for our target audience, along with a description of best practices and an extensive compilation of open educational resources. A series of recommendations is also provided that different stakeholders can follow to make rural and digital compatible for women. The project aims to serve as a starting point for new initiatives and training actions aligned with the R&D WOMEN philosophy, focusing on non-formal education principles.