1st Best national practice and experience from France

General information

 

Name of the good practice:	The Women’s Digital Centres programme
Name of the organisations in charge:	Orange Foundation
Website of the organisation	https://www.fondationorange.com/en
E-mail of the organisation
City	All over France
Country	France
Year	2015
Length of the project/practice	5 years
Is the project/practice ongoing?	yes
Link to the training program	Not available
Language of the practice/program	French

 

Presentation/Description of the method

Empowering women is also a digital training issue and so Orange foundation has created Women’s Digital Centres to train women without qualifications or a job in Europe and Africa. In some countries, the Digital Centres help women to access paid employment, in others (France for example) they learn how to use internet to explore new businesses opportunities. The women’s Digital Centres train and mentor unskilled and unemployed women. At the end of 2017, 77 Digital Centres were installed in France.  

General objectives

The Orange Foundation supports projects in education and health for the most vulnerable populations: young people and women in all of the countries where the Orange Group operates. In this context, they created the “Women’s Digital Centers” program in 2015. It aims to empower economically vulnerable women by providing them with training in digital technology and use of software, financial management and entrepreneurship. Some women will consolidate basic knowledge, discover the use of a computer or a tablet, others will improve their CV and cover letter to help them in their job search. All of these training courses are a key to women’s economic empowerment. The Women’s Digital Centers respond to a need for digital skills development for unemployed women without qualifications in vulnerable economic situations. The Orange foundation/subsidiary proposes a long-term training program in partnership with local government institutions and/or NGOs (for at least 6 months to 1 year). This program is only open to unemployed women without qualifications in vulnerable economic situations.  

Why it has been selected as good practice

It fits with our vulnerable target group and with women going digital. Self employment is supported and low digital skills are addressed.  

Final comment

It is a huge programme with a lot of NGOs involved in Europe and all over the world. I think they could be a partner for the implementation and exploitation of project’s results.