The main objective of the BLOSSOM project was to improve the learning opportunities of low-skilled adult women by strengthening their basic skills such as literacy, numeracy and digital skills with a focus on enterprise development. *The specific objectives of BLOSSOM were: - Identify the needs of adult women in business development skills such as business literacy, numeracy and digital skills. - To support the integration of low-skilled adult women into the labour market and social inclusion. - Encourage low-skilled women to develop entrepreneurial projects through effective and innovative learning outcomes. - To increase female entrepreneurship and improve women's professional skills. - To develop the entrepreneurial capacity of adult women and support organisations. - To develop core and transversal competences. - Support ICT-based teaching and ICT-based assessment practices. - Conduct a validation analysis of the needs and capacity gaps of low-skilled women and their needs.
In all Member States, women's employment rates remain lower than men's, especially in Cyprus, Greece, Romania, Poland and Spain, where there is a large gap between female and male employment rates. In Europe as a whole, the average hours of paid and unpaid work for women and men show the large gap. While men spend 76% of their total working time on paid work, women spend only 53%. The main reason for applying for BLOSSOM project was that promoting female employment is not only important for gender equality, but also for boosting the economy and improving business performance. The partners identified business skills such as literacy to understand the business context, numeracy to have an analytical vision and be more accurate in a rapidly changing market, and digital skills as key to boost female employment and achieve business success. The partners also followed the EC's Europe 2020 headline targets, one of which is to increase labour participation and improve women's employment.