Coding School for 1500 Women
The “Coding School for 1500 Women” project aimed to deliver a meaningful impact on the ICT sector and on women across the entire country, excluding Tbilisi, Rustavi, Poti, Kutaisi and Batumi, while also covering areas along the Administrative Boundary Lines (ABL) and regions highly populated by ethnic minority groups. The skills training programme implemented by Business and Technology University was driven by the growing need for a qualified workforce in the ICT sector. The skills that rural women and girls acquired throughout the grant helped them become competitive in the local and international employment market and raise their standard of living. In addition, the grant activity aimed to contribute to the achievement of four of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals: 4 – Quality Education, 5 – Gender Equality, 8 – Decent Work and Economic Growth and 17 – Partnerships to Achieve the Goal.
Project implementation was an ongoing, multi-faceted endeavour with the primary goal of establishing an inclusive environment where women from the specified regions could fully participate, irrespective of their ethnicity, religion, language or social standing. Through various means, such as targeted information dissemination and recruitment procedures, industry-driven training initiatives, employment support services, career counselling and the active involvement of employers, the project aimed to establish a sustainable connection between skill development and lucrative job prospects. By empowering women and girls in this manner, the project endeavoured to decrease unemployment rates and enable them to play a pivotal role in driving economic growth nationwide.
The fully funded training programme was conducted in three different batches of selected beneficiaries and combined the components of Tech English, Tech courses, Career Bootcamp and Individual Mentorship, developed in accordance with the requirements of the local and international labour markets.
Fully equipped coding school laboratories for women were opened in the partner regional schools, aiming to serve beneficiaries with no or limited access to the internet and computers on a daily basis. The project implementation process in the regions was accompanied by an awareness-raising campaign about technology.
After the completion of the intensive training courses and additional activities planned within the framework of the project, a final event was organised for the beneficiaries, which included Pitch Yourself sessions for industry representatives to promote employment.
Within the framework of the project, the retraining of beneficiaries started with a Tech English course (A1/A2 and B1/B2 levels), which was mandatory for all beneficiaries and continued with one of the Tech fields selected during the registration process:
- Digital Marketing
- Graphic Design
- Software Testing
- UI/UX design
- Front-end development
- Back-end development
The project was implemented throughout the country, excluding the major cities of Tbilisi, Rustavi, Poti, Kutaisi and Batumi.
The target audience of the project was women aged between 16 and 40 from the selected municipalities.
Akhaltsikhe
LEPL Akhaltsikhe Public School N1, address: 2 Mikutishvili street
Gori
LEPL Public school N5 of Gori, address: 62 Z. Rukhadze street
V. Bakhvi, Ozurgeti Municipality
LEPL Bakhvi Village Public School of Ozurgeti Municipality named after Saint Gabriel Bishop, address: OZrugeti, village Bakhvi
Zugdidi
LEPL Public school N3 of Zugdidi, address: 192 Rustaveli street
Ambrolauri
LEPL Public school N1 of Ambrolauri, address: 2 V. Kobakhidze street
Oni
Women’s room of Oni Municipality, Central Library (next to the City Hall). We are grateful for the Oni Musicality that made the room available for the project beneficiaries come from Oni.
Tkibuli
LEPL N7 public school of Tkibuli, address: 14 Bregvadze street
Tsalenjikha
LEPL N2 public school of Tsalenjikha, 1 Gamsakhurdia street
Telavi
Telavi Technopark, 11 Rustaveli avenue
First Cohort
- Total number of applications received: 1527
- Enrolled beneficiaries: 500
- Out of the enrolled beneficiaries, 464 successfully completed the Tech English course.
- Out of the 464 beneficiaries, 333 successfully completed the Tech field course.
Second Cohort
- Total number of applications received: 920
- Enrolled beneficiaries: 536
- Out of the enrolled beneficiaries, 507 successfully completed the Tech English course.
- Out of the 507 beneficiaries, 362 successfully completed the Tech field course.
Third Cohort
- Total number of applications received: 1273
- Enrolled beneficiaries: 464
- Out of the enrolled beneficiaries, 462 successfully completed the Tech English course.
- Out of the 462 beneficiaries, 318 successfully completed the Tech field course.
