The development of AI and IoT, together with the need to include girls in traditionally male-dominated sectors, encouraged us to work on a new way of creating content to strengthen competence in VET education. We planned to achieve the following goals: - improving school curricula by including new content; - adapting the new content to the current educational system of vocational schools; - developing training materials which enable students to acquire knowledge, related to AI, that can be applied and used in their future careers; - broadening teachers' skills in the field of IoT and AI; - creating new competences for the future based on IoT and object connectivity; - creating an AI4FEMALES methodology to support girls in technical education; - promoting a non-competitive learning environment and motivating girls in STEM; - highlighting the role of girls in STEM VET schools; - challenging stereotypes among student teachers and their families; - inspiring young girls to study in STEM technical schools through role model education; - improving the acquisition of key skills and competencies in STEM technical schools for all students regardless of gender.
The participating VET schools specialise in electronics, mechatronics, robotics and telecommunications. The reasoning behind their participation in the project can be presented in two aspects: - the necessity to update the curricula with regard to new technologies - Internet of Things (IoT) and Artificial Intelligence (AI); the developing AI is able to address the biggest challenges currently facing education and allows for the development of innovative teaching and learning methods. - the share of the female gender interested in technology in terms of careers is very low (less than 5%); a significant percentage of young people, especially girls, are not motivated to choose STEM-related majors; they find these specialities to be for boys, difficult or uninteresting. Our aim was to encourage girls into VET schools by creating 'MOTIVATING' demonstrators based on AI and IoT. We developed the AI4FEMALES methodology to motivate and inspire girls to choose a career in STEM. We intend to show how easy it is to use AI by breaking down gender stereotypes, providing role models, taking on the role of mentors who encourage girls and boys through appealing AI demonstrators.