6 years ago, in Kosovo, a Pilot Program was launched called Women in Online Work (Wow) to help train over 250 un/-underemployed young women in technical and soft skills to enable them to become online freelancers. Not only did this program help young women to gain important skills, but it also highlighted the importance of collaboration and project planning.
Looking back at the several past years of this program, professionals from Helvetas and the World Bank decided to reflect on the lessons learned from the “Women in Online Work” (WoW) pilots in Kosovo.
Their positive reflections included finding that the program went beyond the initial collaboration agreement, and second, bringing international best practices as a catalyst for local market innovation.
One point to be considered is that they found that in one municipality, despite the wide advertising of the program, only 5 women applied. They found it was because the advertisements mentioned “English” and that municipality had a low share of young women speaking English, thus discouraging them from applying to the program.
The Women in Online Work program highlighted that online work could offer big opportunities for young women in Kosovo and the country as a whole.
https://www.helvetas.org/en/switzerland/how-you-can-help/follow-us/blog/inclusive-systems/Women-online