EUMENTORSTEM seeks to foster the performance, learning and development of women with migrant background to consolidate their career in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) jobs in Europe (as paid employees or as entrepreneurs). The project aims to develop and test innovative materials on mentoring and coaching (M&C) in STEM for migrant women and their career advisors/educators, that will be shared in an online European knowledge hub in all partner languages. The project is designed to take into account three critical intersections in Europe. First, the increasing influx of migrants. Second, the gender gap in STEM-related jobs. Third, the double disadvantage faced by highly-skilled migrant women in the labour markets. EUMENTORSTEM is innovative in contents: it responds to specific needs of migrant women looking for a career in STEM in Europe, producing contents to fit migrant women with a STEM study or work background. It is innovative in approach, because (1) it assumes as necessary to support both migrant women and the career advisors/educators working with them; (2) it works with a bottom-up logic, developing materials based on a diagnostic assessment of beneficiaries’ training needs. Furthermore EUMENTORSTEM is innovative in methods, because it proposes teaching and learning methodologies combining M&C and action learning to support personal self-development. The innovative aspect of EUMENTORSTEM stems from the capacity of the 5 partners to build on and link with both on-going and concluded projects on national, regional and European level. All partners are all members of WiTEC‒European associationforWomen in Science, Engineering and Technology‒that promotes activities relating to empowering women in this field. The methodology of the project is articulated in three phases. First, the preparation phase –carried out before the beginning of the project and within its first three months‒ to provide a solid background to start. Second, the collaborative assessment phase, aiming at increasing the understanding of training needs of migrant women willing to pursue a career in STEM and their advisors. Third, the production phase, concerning the development of training contents targeted to migrant women and to career advisors/educators. Fourth, the virtual engagement phase, regarding the creation and use of an online hub to enhance the overall tools and to make available the materials across Europe. Around 400 persons will be directly targeted in project activities, throughfocusgroups, ToTs, pilot training of Trainer’s and Learner’s Kits through Mentoring Circles™ and Integration Circles™, national multiplier events, European conference, the virtual hub for training and online community. In addition, around 10,000 persons will benefit from project activities through extensive dissemination actions implemented by the project partners. EUMENTORSTEM will employ blended learning methodologies combining face-to-face workshops with computer-mediated activities that will be used for both target groups. EUMENTORSTEM intellectual outputs will contribute to achieving the project’s specific objectives in3ways: (1) increase the understanding of training needs for migrant women willing to pursue a career in STEM and of the career advisors/educators working with them; (2) assist migrant women with a STEM-background to develop transversal competences and to acquire practical information on employment prospects, career advancement, and possibilities for self-employment; (3) provide career advisors/educators as well as trainers in partner organizations the support for learning, development and performance to help migrant women to develop their skills, and attitudes. The main project results will be the EUMENTORSTEM Trainer's and the Learner’s Kits , accompanied by a virtual hub for training and online community. Collateral outcomes will be dissemination and exploitation tools (public presentations, scientific and non-scientific articles). All project results will be placed on the virtual hub (connectedtoEPALEplatform) storingdigitalresources under open access that will be functioning for 1 year after the conclusion of the project. The impact of the project is expected to be significant both numerically and in terms of empowering/building capacity of target groups; migrant women will benefit from workshops fostering their employabilityin STEM fields;/career advisors/educators will receive training that will increasetheirskillsinpromotingmigrantwomen’ career in the STEM sector; and trainers in project partner organisations will extend their expertise on training mentors. The project will therefore strengthen the links between female migrants and the European STEM labour market in need of skills and diversity, focusing on the social inclusion of adults through the provision of effective outreach, guidance and motivation strategies in the form of M&C and extending and developing educators’ competences.
EUMentorSTEM was designed to address three critical phenomena in Europe: the increasing influx of migrants; the gender gap in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) sectors; and the disadvantage faced by highly-skilled migrant women in the labor market stemming from the intersection of gender, age and ethnicity. The project aimed to support the labour market participation (as paid employees or as entrepreneurs) of migrant women with a STEM background by: a) enhancing migrant women’s soft skills to increase their chances to succeed in the labor market; b) implementing the competences in mentoring and coaching (M&C) of the professionals (job counsellors, career advisers, educators, social workers, HR staff, etc.) who can intercept this highly specific category of beneficiaries. The project initial phase, consisting of the KoM and elaboration of strategic project documents (Project Management Framework, QuEP, Dissemination Plan) aimed to provide a solid background to start. Afterwards, the outputs implementation started: 1) collaborative assessment phase, aimed at increasing the understanding of the training needs of the project beneficiaries (IO1 Collaborative Diagnostic Assessment, led by UNIBO); 2) production phase, concerning the development and testing of training kits for migrant women and professionals (IO2 EUmentorSTEM Trainer’s kit and IO3 EUMentorSTEM Learner’s kit, led by Inova); 4) virtual engagement phase, regarding the creation of an online open hub to make available the training materials across Europe (IO4 EUMentorSTEM Virtual Hub for Learning and Community, led by EDEM). In the collaborative assessment phase (IO1), the Consortium reconstructed the training needs of the project beneficiaries through an exploratory research that reached – in the 5 partner countries – 57 migrant women (including refugees and asylum seekers), 25 professionals and about 270 stakeholder organizations; 97 more professionals participated in the online survey delivered by UNIBO. The comparative report (available on EPALE, on the E+ project results platforms and on the project website) – including the 5 national reports compiled by partners – and the Final Report on Quantitative Needs assessment allowed identifying common beneficiaries’ needs across the Consortium. Those documents informed the subsequent production phase (IO2 and IO3), which consisted of the elaboration of a Trainer’s and a Learner’s kit based on the project beneficiaries’ needs and moving from the existing Mentoring Circles methodologyTM developed in 2001 by Inova. In M8, 11 partners were coached by Inova in the training methodology during the Training of Trainers (ToT, C1). The kits were tested through pilot training (EUMentoring) targeting the project beneficiaries. The pilots’ implementation (2-rounds pilot with two different groups of migrant women; 1 pilot with professionals in each partner country) were carried out between M12 and M17. Overall, 60 migrant women and 56 professionals participated in EUMentoring. The implementation of pilots allowed the Consortium revising and finalizing the Trainer’s and the Learner’s kit (available in 5 languages). Two comparative reports on process, contents and lessons learnt from IO2 and IO3 EUmentoring pilots’ implementation are available on EPALE, on the E+ project results platforms and on the project website together with the 2 Kits. The Virtual Hub (IO4) aimed at disseminating the tested 2 toolkits to a broader, international community. A Moodle E-learning platform was set up and all partners – drawing on the results of EUMentoring pilots’ implementation – adapted the vis-à-vis training and the toolkits (Trainer’s and Learner’s kits) to their on-line shape. The two courses (available in 5 languages) for migrant women and professionals include an interactive booklet version of the kits, with additional free resources that aim at offering a more complete learning experience and a printable version of the training contents and tools. Users can also interact among them using the forums. The Hub, which is accessible from the project website, was finalized at the beginning of M21 and promoted by the Consortium through different channels (project and stakeholder organizations’ websites, press releases, social media, personal emails); by the end of the project, 5587 users acceeded the Hub, 83 enrolled.The hub will be available after the end of the project, allowing the project sustainability in the future and a longer-term impact of its outputs. In order to disseminate the project activities and results, the Consortium organized 5 national Multiplier Events between M7 and M20 (178 participants) and an International Final Conference in Bologna in M23 (67 participants). These and further dissemination activities allowed EUMentorSTEM reaching an impact at the local, regional, national and international level on about 8000 persons.