Aiding and Supporting women to Trust their potential, Reach their goals and Achieve their career objectives

<< Background >>We applied for this project because, following a successful pilot of the core project idea in Malta, we saw the potential to scale it up. We thus developed a larger project for application in both Italy and Malta, two countries in Southern Europe facing similar gender equality issues. In both countries, women are under-represented in senior leadership as a result of ingrained gender stereotypes and social norms which create barriers to women’s career progress. In addition, the majority of talented female professionals find themselves facing the so-called ‘leadership labyrinth’ alone without any external support from more experienced colleagues. The project addressed these needs via the creation and roll-out of an innovative, transnational and cross-cultural training and mentoring program for talented female professionals wishing to step up their careers. The program was complemented by awareness-raising events targeting potential employers and the general public.<< Objectives >>Via this project we sought to achieve the following objectives:Develop and implement a cross-sectoral, cross- border, intergenerational and intercultural training and mentoring program for aspiring female leaders Create opportunities for female intra/entrepreneurship in project countries and transnationally Encourage digital transformation by promoting intergenerational digital knowledge exchange between mentors and menteesEnhance mentors’ skills and abilities to successfully develop other leaders Make employers and broader society more aware of gender gaps in employment and of the opportunities stemming from investing in women.<< Implementation >>A1 1st Transnational partner meetingA2 Needs assessment with potential mentees and mentors in Italy and Malta(focus groups)A3 Development of training modules and Mentoring ToolboxA4 Pilot testingA5 Fine-turning of training modules and mentoring toolboxA6 Joint staff training and 2nd transnational partner meeting (online)A7 Multiplier event 1A8 Recruitment of mentors and mentees A9 Training and onboarding of program participantsA10 Program implementationA11 Development and publication of program guidelinesA12 Creation and management of ASTRA public Facebook groupA13 Recording and publication of online video and podcast seriesA14 3rd transnational partner meetingA15 Final multiplier eventA16 Project management<< Results >>A1: agenda, recording, participants list, ppt presentations, satisfaction survey (3 responses).A2: study report, 22 pages, needs of potential participantsA3: 10 training modules; 1 mentoring toolbox; Google ClassroomA4: report of feedback from participants (1 page); rec. pilot session, participant list A5: 10 training modules (soft copy, EN, 10 pdfs)A6: recording of joint staff training and 2nd TPM; agenda; satisfaction surveys for 2nd TPM; satisfaction surveys for Joint staff trainingA7: Rec of event on Zoom, Facebook; agenda; slides; participant list; report of views on FbR: recruitmentA8: approximately 60 applications (Google forms)A9: 9 recordings of training sessions (8 sessions + 2 sessions recorded jointly); participants’ list on Zoom; evidence of training completion (via questionnaire) for participants; certificates (n. 34)A10: Google classroom page; profile cards for mentor-mentee matching; evaluation forms (101 mentoring sessions); 3 recordings of group sessions for mentors/mentees; 31 final evaluation formsA11: recommendations for the replication of ASTRA in other countries (71 pages;)A12: 1 Fb page A13: 6 podcasts;A14: list, photos A15: list, photos, ppt presentations, certificatesA16: final report