Description
Project PONToon will improve the employment rates of women from disadvantaged backgrounds by developing a range of digital tools and technologies that will be used to tackle the digital skills shortage that currently exists in the UK and France.
The project will target socially excluded women who are far removed from the labour market and who may face challenges such as single parenthood and mental health issues.
PONToon will focus on developing several digital tools that will help upskill women by improving their digital competencies and providing them with the necessary digital skills to access the labour market.
The various tools will include virtual reality interviews, webinars and bespoke computer game experiences, where the game scenarios aim to engage and train users on basic and advanced ICT skills, social media usage and other digital skills. These novel forms of training are often found to be more engaging and effective than traditional methods and will help socially excluded women gain the relevant employability skills needed to support their economic inclusion.
The tools will be co-created and developed by women who currently do not have access to digital technology. Through developing the tools they will learn additional skills on idea development, data creation and project management.
The toolkit will then be shared with service providers, job centres and local authorities enabling them to offer a more engaging and complete training offer to women. Over the 3-and-a-half year lifetime of the project, the tools developed by PONToon will help train 1600 women with the aim of 400 participants returning to work as a direct result of this training.