R&D WOMEN aimed to comprehensively address the digital gender gap affecting women in rural areas. The project emerged in response to the exacerbation of these disparities following the pandemic, with the objective of developing a flexible and practical educational methodology. This methodology, based on participatory tools (bootcamps, project-based learning, ...), aimed to equip this group with basic digital skills, crucial for improving their employability in an increasingly digitalised labour market. Beyond directly training rural women, the project also focused on strengthening the skills of adult educators in this environment, ensuring that their preparation would enable them to effectively guide and motivate the learning process. This involved not only improving technical skills but also fostering confidence and the ability to adapt to change among participants. Through this initiative, the aim was to expand access to non-formal and informal learning opportunities for adult women in rural areas, thus addressing the specific educational and employment barriers they face.
R&D WOMEN emerged from the urgent need to address the digital gender gap affecting women in rural settings, exacerbated by the technological changes resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic. In rural areas, many women face serious difficulties in accessing the labour market due to the lack of basic digital skills, essential in the current labour environment that has emerged over the past four years. This proposal aimed to empower these women, enabling them to improve their employability and, therefore, their resilience. INNSAMBLE, with its experience in digital transformation and training, together with NEWCO, an IT company, and CONTEXTOS, experts in participatory tools, combined their strengths to develop a flexible and highly practical educational methodology. This approach sought to facilitate the training of rural women by removing barriers and motivating them. To achieve this, the role of trainers was fundamental, so their training was also addressed, aiming to adapt their approaches, tools, and methods to effectively train this group with these specific conditions.