Empowering women in the field of information and communications technology

The measure includes publishing a call and an it prequalification training, as well as adopting and implementing the program for improving women’s digital capabilities, allowing for women to participate more in the creative industry sector. the project and activities were carried out in accordance with the policy for staff development as defined in the strategy for the development of the information technology industry for the period 2017-2020 (official gazette of the rs, issue 95/16) with the goal of staff training and it industry development, as well as women’s social and economic empowerment. the national strategy for gender equality for the period 2016-2020 (official gazette of the rs, issue 4/16) set a specific goal to improve women’s economic position and labor market status. in 2017, the ministry of trade, tourism and telecommunications (mttt) implemented the project “training women in it,” supported by unesco. the project was implemented by organizing it seminars and courses with the aim of empowering unemployed women from serbia by providing them with the opportunity to gain relevant knowledge to enter the ict sector. the public call for grants for programs in the field of information society development was issued the same year, to improve the level of digital literacy and competency—prequalification and additional qualification of women in the ict field. this was followed with the mttt approving the program for empowering women in the field of information and communications technology for the period 2019-2020, which sets the specific goals of improving women’s participation in the ict sector, program measures and activities aimed at reducing gender disparity in the digital sector, as well as women’s social and economic empowerment and their regional prevalence in this field. the integral part of the program is the action plan for implementing the program for empowering women in the field of information and communications technology for the period 2019-2020. the program was designed for girls, young women, and women of all ages, and entails the implementation of specific measures to accomplish the following specific goals: 1) encouraging schoolgirls/female students to pursue further higher education and careers in the ict field; 2) allowing women who have been educated and work in other fields to gain or improve their knowledge and skills needed to use ict tool through informal education; 3) encouraging older women to use ict and improving women’s digital skills to suppress the economic digital disparity. the program’s target groups are schoolgirls in their final years of elementary school, grammar school female students, vocational school female students, technical faculty female students, women interested in gaining knowledge and skills in ict, media workers and journalists, women from rural areas, and women in retirement.