COACHING FOR FEMALE EMPLOYMENT IN THE DIGITAL SECTOR IN ORDER TO PROMOTE GENDER EQUALITY IN THE LABOUR MARKET

An Action Plan is a detailed plan with specified actions that are needed to achieve the desirable results. An action plan generally includes steps, milestones, and measures of progress, as well as responsibilities, specific assignments, and a timeline. It is important to encourage the female learners to set up their own individual action plan to gain the necessary IT skills and to be involved in the digital sector. An action plan is critical in accomplishing goals because it will help learners stay motivated and ensure that they are on track to complete their goals in a reasonable amount of time. The learners should clearly understand that the action plan will help them monitor their progress. They will have an official start and end date, and they will know approximately how long it will take to finish each step. It can also help ensure that they are staying within a certain budget and if they need to make adjustments to their time or resources.

5.2 How to develop an action plan

When the learners know about the action plan's importance and role in personal development, there is a time to start developing the action plan using the format suggested by the coach. Here are the 5 main steps you should follow in creating an action plan:

1. Set the goals.
2. Create a list of actions.
3. Set a timeline.
4. Designate resources.
5. Monitor the progress.

1.  The goal should be:

Clearly defined. For instance, instead of saying that you want to be employed in the digital sector, you could set to get a certificate on completion of an IT skills course.

Measured. For instance, if your goal is to get a certificate, try to create weekly or monthly reports to track your progress in the training course.
Achievable: Although it is good to set high goals to challenge yourself, making sure they’re attainable will help you achieve your desired progress.

Relevant: Your goal should be relevant to your abilities, needs and interests. For instance, if you want to gain necessary IT skills, setting a goal to finish some different training courses may not be relevant.

Time-based: You should set a specific deadline for reaching your goal, such as to finish the training course within the next 6 months.

2. Next, create a list of tasks you need to complete in order to reach your goal. This process entails dividing your main goal into smaller objectives. Make sure the actions are attainable and related to your goal. For example, if you want to gain some skills to have a job in the digital sector, you may have to perform a number of tasks to achieve your goal, such as learning a new IT skill. Learning a new IT skill is one task that will likely need to be broken up into smaller, well-defined steps. Clearly describe each task to create a plan that will lead you to your ultimate goal.

3. Besides setting a deadline for your main goal, you should also establish a timeframe for completing each task in the process. It is essential to create a timeline you can reasonably follow so you can maintain consistent progress toward your goal. Assess the requirements and consider the amount of time you need to complete each item on your list. For example, you desire to complete the IT training course during the next 3 months.

4. The next step is to designate resources, such as money (cost for the course), web or youtube links where you can find the necessary training material, equipment (e.g. webcam to participate in the online sessions).

5. And the last one is to describe how you are going to monitor your progress during following the action plan. It could be some milestones to contact your coach for reporting or to have some face to face meetings with your coach as well.

5.3  Encouraging the female learners to search for the open educational resources

The adult-educator coach should encourage the female learners to search for the different open educational resources (OER) and paid courses in the digital sector, which could be included in their Action Plans to improve digital skills, necessary to achieve the results.

Open educational resources are materials for teaching or learning that are either in the public domain or have been released under a license that allows them to be freely used, changed, or shared with others. OER may include everything from a single video or lesson plan to an online course or curriculum and also include the software platforms needed to create, change, and share the materials.

One of the outcomes of the Godigital project is the set of OERs “Why re-qualification for employment in the digital sector is important for me?”. It targets disadvantaged women and consists of four OERs (https://godigital.lmlo.lt/oers.html):

• Digital stories “Successful women in the digital sector of labour market” 

• Interactive readings “ABC on gender equality in the labour market”

• Compendium of (re-)training programs for qualifications in the digital sector of labour market 

• Action plan “My further steps into employment in the digital sector”.

The adult-educator coach is able to refer to these resources and encourage the female learners to use them.

5.4  Support female learners in developing an action plan 

As a coach, you can support female learners in developing action plans towards getting employment in the digital sector. For example, the learners can use the Action plan “My further steps into employment in the digital sector” developed in the framework of the Godigital project (see https://godigital.lmlo.lt/oers.html) and adjust it according to personal needs. Another option is, for example, to use a simple template for the action plan suggested below and fill in it together with your learners.

Action plan template

Problem:

Goal:

Action Plan:

• Actions (steps you plan to take to achieve your goals)
• Timeline (deadline for each step)
• Resources (assets you need to allocate for each step)
• Potential barriers (factors that can potentially hinder the completion of each step)
• Outcomes (desired result for each step)

Evidence of Success:

Tracking and Evaluation Process:

Also, it can be the templates prepared as Word files. It will be good to present some examples of the action plan to inspire the learners to develop a similar one. If the coach is working with the group, the learners can share their action plans, discuss the goals, timeline, etc in the group.