"<< Background >>Women shoulder a heavier burden of family work than men in modern society, preventing them from matching male success in the external labour market. So far, the decrease in the employment rate due to the COVID-19 crisis has not seen substantial differences by gender on average in the EU. However, women’s over- representation in lower paid sectors and occupations, as well as in part-time employment, makes them particularly vulnerable in the labour markets struck by the COVID-19 crisis. Gender gaps are larger for women with young children: in 2019, they faced a negative employment gap of 14.3 pps in contrast to women without children, whereas men in the same situation saw a positive gap of 9.6 pps. Employment outcomes are poorer in particular for older, non-EU born and low-skilled women and women with disabilities. Female labour market participation could be strengthened by reforms and investments in work-life balance policies, such as gender balanced parental and care leaves.The position of women in the labour market, either when talking about employed ones or entrepreneurs, is still lagging behind quite considerably in relation to the one of men. For decades already the debate has opened raising awareness on the pronounced pay gap, the limitations of professional growth and the ""invisible ceiling"", low representation in key managerial or decision-making positions and a series of obstacles for women entrepreneurs (from access to funding to lack of governments support for balancing professional and personal life to incentives and programmes to support the development of very small and small enterprises conceptualised and run by women); however the problem still persists without much changing in the conditions and opportunities available for women. The EMPOWERED project will create a training programme for women to achieve a two-fold purpose: on one hand, it will equip women with digital skills which are necessary in the era of digital transformation and are valuable for accessing the labour market with a competitive disadvantage, and on the other it will address a spectrum of psychological obstacles women are facing when they need to claim a better position in the world of work. Therefore, the needs of the target group of the project which will be met relate both to technical skills and emotional/ psychological reinforcement which is equally important for all women who wish to either find a job or change their career path. The former will be achieved through the adaptation of an already existing training course that P3 (Found.ation) has developed and successfully implements for digital upskilling and the latter will be covered through the development of a set of modules specifically for providing emotional and psychological support and fostering increased self-awareness and self-worth.<< Objectives >>The conditions under which women are employed (in terms of schedule, demands, expectations) and them with their professional life form a challenge that they are forced to deal with. If one also considers the existing prejudices in terms of a woman’s position, her knowledge and skills, her ability to undertake certain tasks, it becomes a multifaceted problem which, ultimately, impacts their perception of self and worth.Empower is a multidimensional word including social, physical, spiritual, mental, political and psychological dimensions. Empower means personal growth in decision-making, analysing critical situations, coping with all circumstances and facing challenges. The objective of the project is the empowerment of women through the development of a training course for their digital upskilling, as well as their psychological empowerment to reinforce their position in the labour market. The course will be based on the Found.ation Business Academy (FBA) a tailored professional skills platform developed by the Found.ation, which offers structured and dynamic content on emerging technologies, innovation & digital transformation, which can be delivered with great flexibility. The content of the FBA will be adapted to the needs of unemployed women, as well as women who wish to pursue a career change but are reluctant. In addition to the digital skills that will be enhanced, the partners will also develop a horizontal set of modules, aiming at helping women address the psychological factors that demoralise women for claiming a better employment or even daring to The partners will also develop a handbook to facilitate the delivery of the Empowered course by AE teachers and trainers, career counsellors and CSO representatives aimed at providing the theoretical background, the tools and methodologies of the EMPOWERED training course to facilitate its implementation after the end of the project. The handbook is expected to bring important added value to the sustainability of the results developed. Moreover, a virtual community will be set up, through which the members of the target group will be able to access the training programme and, most importantly, connect with their peers, exchange experiences and thoughts and provide support to one another. Representatives from the stakeholders of the project will also have the opportunity to connect through the platform with the target group and disseminate information on education, training and employment opportunities, as well as initiatives at local, regional and national level aimed at the facilitation of access to employment and balance of professional with personal life.<< Implementation >>The EMPOWERED project has been designed with 4 results and 4 project phases which have been structured in such a way as to deliver high quality outputs tailored to the identified needs. Moreover, apart from the phases of the project which will be described below the following horizontal processes will support its implementation: Project Management, Quality Assurance and evaluation, dissemination and exploitation.Τhe 4 phases of the project are:Phase 1-Preparation: in the first part of the project the partners will undertake a state-of-the-art research to document the challenges that women need to face when trying to achieve employment or change their career, especially following the changes brought about from the pandemic and in the era of digital transformation. The parteners will focus on women 30-50 years old and from different socio-economic and cultural backgrounds. (months 1-4)Phase 2-Development: during the development phase, the partners will focus on the development of the EMPOWERED training programme, the corresponding handbook for AE trainers, career counsellors and CSOs, and the digital community for peer-support and encouragement, as well as dissemination of information related to opportunities for training, employment, etc. The basis for the development will be the FBA training programme developed by P3, the expertise of P4 and P2 on addressing emotional and psychological obstacles for (re) entering the labour market and the findings of R1. In this context, two LTAs are foreseen, aimed at bring together the partners for the coordinated development and finalisation of the outputs prior to the pilot phase. (months 5-14)Phase 3–Pilot phase: this phase will aim at the pilot implementation of all outputs aforementioned with a selected number of target group members. The aim of this phase will be to collect grassroots level feedback on the results, if necessary undertake some updates/ revisions and draw conclusions for the final stage of the project (months 15-21)Phase 4–Finalisation: the last phase of the project relates to the drafting of a report which will summarise the progress of the pilot phase and the feedback collected, resulting in recommendations for policy makers, national and local institutions, as well as labour market representatives on how they can effectively address the issue of gender inequality in the workplace. (months 22-24)<< Results >>The project implementation will lead to outcomes both tangible and intangible. In particularTangible Results:1) A state-of-the-art report presenting the challenges that women have to face when in need of changing their employment status (either accessing employment or changing career paths)2) The EMPOWERED training programme for women, including the adaptation of the FBA (provided by P3) and a horizontal set of modules for the psychological empowerment of the target group3) A handbook for AE trainers and providers, career counsellors and CSOs to ensure the sustainability of the projectIntangible Results:1) Development of the EMPOWERED virtual (digital) community among women and project stakeholders2) Increased visibility on the challenges women face in terms of their employment status, especially if they have been long-term unemployed for a number of reasons3) Increased sensitivity on how policymakers, institutions and the civil society as a whole contribute to the resolution of these challenges4) Promotion and exchange of good practice examples in the field of facilitating access to employment for women5) Networking among all stakeholders involved in the partner countries, through both the focus groups organised in the context of the project, the multiplier events and the virtual community"