RIDE project empowers and integrates migrant women through boosting digital skills

After the project ended, the participants were put in contact with companies through job fairs. These fairs took place all over Europe and involved more than 40 employers and 200 migrant women.

Transforming Lives: RIDE Supported Women in Europe

RIDE improved the inclusion and employment prospects of over 100 women. They came from 27 different countries, including Ukraine, where the war broke out during the implementation phase. The project also created Guidelines on project design for digital skills programmes, focusing on creating a safe space for women trainees and sources of learning and funding, as well as guidelines on mentoring and training covering intercultural and social inclusion, workplace integration and entrepreneurship. Further, the project created national database of 94 employers interested in hiring migrant women for IT jobs.

Sara’s experience: using reskilling to discover new professional interests

Sara Alkaf, who fled Yemen 7 years ago and found refuge in Bulgaria, states in her testimonial that this is the country she and her family of four call home. Sara has a degree in interior design and architecture, but she is currently working in customer service in her adopted country. Through RIDE, she learned computer-aided design technology and video-production, which will help her transition to a more fulfilling job and to be more effective in her volunteer work.

The course opened some new doors for her and motivated her to learn more about applications and programmes. “I understood that I do not have to pursue only a career path based on what I studied at university or on the on-the-job training: there are no limits, and we can constantly learn new things in our lives that can lead us to a new career path”, she said.

Because the classes were in Bulgarian, not everything was simple. However, this encouraged her to improve her language skills. The teachers were supportive, and the teaching methods were flexible enough to meet her needs as a young mother. She also added: “The experience of these courses was refreshing - I felt reborn and ready to change my life. To be a good mother I need to be a happy mother and to be a happy mother I need to have a job that I love.”

Background

The project could be implemented thanks to the AMIF funds and lasted from 1 February 2021 to 31 January 2023. It was aimed at migrant women, human resource managers, teachers in charge of career guidance, career guidance professionals, trade unions, and local, national, and European policymakers. The nine partners of RIDE were UNITEE (EU), DIESIS (EU), the European Network of Migrant Women (EU), the Bulgarian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BG), Youth Included (CZ), Litus novum (DE), Symplexis (EL), Legacoopsociali (IT) and the Code for Change (NL).