In most countries in Central and Eastern Europe, statistics show a significant difference between women's employment (59.3 %) and maternal employment (15 %). This problem mainly concerns the employment of mothers of very young children. The longer the mother stays at home with the child, the more difficult it is for her to return to work. Over the years, when a mother is at home, she is losing working habits, an overview of labour market opportunities, she usually has difficulties in reconciling family and working life, often lacking new skills needed for the labour market. Most women find it very important to return to work after maternity leave, but the working opportunities for women with small children are very limited. Employers are inflexible, they often have prejudices, in particular short-term jobs are lacking. A preliminary analysis of the situation in the partner countries has shown that these problems are more or less dealt with in all countries, but in the Western European countries, namely in the Netherlands and Norway, the situation is more favorable, the employers are more flexible and the shorter-term work is offered by most companies . However, the common feature is that, regardless of geography, it is necessary to develop the skills of women after maternity leave in line with current, continuously changing labour market requirements. The project will focus on developing the skills of women on/after maternity leave through innovative blended learning. Blended learning will allow the target group to acquire relevant knowledge, new skills (e.g. sorting and filtering information, virtual collaboration, creative thinking, etc.) that are needed to be successful on the labour market in the 21st century. At the same time it will provide information on various new job opportunities and forms of work. Women on/after maternity leave will be motivated in the project activities to think creatively and engage in creating the content of the learning material according to their own needs. During the training they will acquire skills that will enable them to develop their career and return to the labour market. The project will support the introduction of new innovative techniques in the digital age. It will contribute to developing the IT skills of a professional team in creating e-learning materials, as well as developing the IT skills of direct target groups. An important activity will be the creation of a motivation package for employers and the participation of adult education lecturers and professional consultants in international short-term staff training event. Within the activity, their competencies will be developed, which will enable a better cooperation with employers. The acquired competencies will contribute to motivating employers to employ women after maternity leave. Better cooperation with employers will help increase their empathy and the introduction of new flexible forms of employment.
The longer the parents, and in most countries, mothers stay at home with children, the more difficult it seems for them to return to work (European Commission, 2018). Over the years, they may lose working habits, overview of the opportunities available on the labour market and they lack new skills required. In addition, they may have trouble with the work-family life. Despite these challenges, most parental leavers find it important to return to work after maternity or parental leave. The project "Fostering Employment of Maternity Leavers" (FEMALE) responds to statistics and research pointing to the fact that parenting in many respects complicates the situation of the parent, mostly mothers, in the labour market. The aim of the FEMALE project is to look for ways to facilitate the return to work after parental leave. The project brings innovative counselling and educational content for parents returning to work, created on the basis of the results of an international study and a survey of the needs of target groups in cooperation with partners – educational organizations from France, the Netherlands, Hungary, Norway and Slovakia. The product is an electronic platform designed for the target group of parents, career counsellors or other stakeholders in the labour market with practical advice when considering the return of parents to the labour market. WHAT DOES FEMALE INCLUDE? - Implementation of a research study mapping different approaches and best practices in partner countries and in other countries to support the return of parents to the labor market after parental leave - Creation of a blended learning programme (curriculum, pedagogical materials and distance learning tools) to support the employability of parents - Development of an electronic platform intended for target groups (parents, career counsellors, employers) to navigate the return to the labour market. PARTNERSHIP The project consortium consists of 6 partners from 5 countries with expertise in adult education, career guidance and labour market research (France, the Netherlands, Hungary, Norway and Slovakia). The project coordinator is TREXIMA Bratislava. BENEFITS The platform https://moodle.parentalleavers.eu/ deals with various topics that need to be taken into account when moving from the period of childcare back to working life. The intention is for the platform to contribute to discovering and getting acquainted with the possibilities of facilitating the employment of parents. In addition to the use of the platform by individual parents, the content of the platform is freely available and usable for counsellors and HR professionals, as their support and mutual cooperation of both parties is also important. The free availability of the program in the digital environment in the form of an electronic platform contributes to the openness of educational content in the age of digital media. The flexible use of counseling and training materials, either individually or in cooperation with an employer or career counselor, opens up new possibilities for accessing skills related to better employability.