GirlsTech at the University Politehnica Timișoara

through the ID / IFR Center and E-learning

Politehnica University Timișoara organized the GirlsTech Workshop via its ID/IFR and E-learning centre during March 19th and 20th. The workshop is dedicated to girls and women working in the field of technology and is part of the international Erasmus+ GirlsTech project.

The GirlsTech project’s objectives are: engaging girls in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) fields, identifying best practice examples in various European states, exchange programs and making recommendations for regional policies.

Technology represents a major part of our daily lives. In order to be able to compete with the world, Europe needs more technology professionals and it must make us of its talented youth, girls and women especially. The fact that female participation in STEM fields is at a low level represents an obstacle for most of the European countries. However, the Erasmus+ KA2 GirlsTech project tackles this issue. Participants from 8 different countries shared their knowledge in order to improve each other’s policies and actions. The project does not aim to develop a new universal instrument but rather focuses on reciprocal learning activities, best practice exchanges, all with the purpose of discovering which approaches suit the participating states better. There have currently been six meetings that consisted of best practice exchange regarding actions designed to engage girls in STEM fields.

At the Timișoara Workshop, there were shared experiences in the fields of pre-university studies and vocational learning thanks to the contribution of CNDIPT and Timiș County School Inspectorate, the field of dual learning due to the involvment of various companies in Western Romania, IT promotional activities via CoderDojo, MegaDojo and HackTM and mentorship activities for girls and children in IT conducted in Cluj and Bucharest. The workshop has also included succes stories of leader women in Romanian companies and education, as well as Women in Tech Timișoara events.