SKOOL Regional technology project for girls
Project time frame
Preparation phase: Betweem January - Februray, 2015
 Local market analysis, scale-up study
 Finalize the curriculum and methodology
 Recruit and hire the local instructors and tech volunteers
 Get in touch with local tech companies, potetial partners and schools
 Advertise the workshops and the classes
 Train the instructors and tech volunteers, both in Budapest and locally
 Prepare the venue for the workshops
Execution phase: Between March and May, 2015
 Manage the first workshops
 Evaluate and review the day with the instructors and tech volunteers and check the girls’s
feedback and make changes in the process if necesarry
 Manage 3-3 onde-day workshop in Miskolc and Salgótarján
 Half-time review session with the instructors and tech volunteers
Post phase: June 2015
 Write a report, communicate the results
 Based on all the feedbacks from the girls, volunteers, instructors make the changes in the
process if necesarry
 Finalize the methodology and think of how to scale the project and bring it to different citites
Project Goals
Direct goals:
To develop the content and methodology of an intensive, experience-oriented digital-competence
developing program for 330 girls in two underdeveloped cities, Miskolc and Salgótarján in Hungary,
and realization of the program. Our teaching material consists of high quality interactive programpackage, through which the children will be part of digital creation, while their IT skills improve almost
imperceptibly. Their social and cognitive skills and their self-confidence will be developing, which will
help the girls interested in programming and multimedia to make the first steps towards a profession.
Parallel to this it will help eliminate the prejudices amongst grown-ups in the program. The Foundation
is therefore going to be augmented with valuable experiences, which makes it possible to scale the
knowledge and start nationwide Skool trainings.
Focusing on two underdeveloped cities, Miskolc and Salgótarján we will introduce technology and
programming to 330 girls age between 14-16, to awaken love for technology as a career for them,
and to change the image that lives in society of what it means to be a “techie”.
To achieve a measurable change in the environment of the girls who take part. We organize at the
beginning of each training a separate discussion with the parents, where we talk about the
Foundation, the necessity of our Project, the Hungarian IT market and why we believe that this
profession is suitable for girls too. This is the point when the parents can ask questions from us and
from the leaders of the tech companies who lead the courses. But what's more important and what
has a long-term effect on our indirect target group is the positive experience the girls get with us and
what they share at home. We are aware of the fact that without family support a child's dreams rarely
come true.
Long term plan:
According to a research conducted in Hungary in 2013 at Óbudai Egyetem, the ratio of girl applicants
is 8% as average: only 28 girls applied in 2013. The BME bears the same ratio (6,6%), 370 girls from
the 5600 VIK students. Our aim is to get this number higher, around 10% by the end of 2018.
This would likely to help Hungary in the internatinal competition for jobs, capital and talent in a
growing tech economy.
Activies and methodology
One-Day Workshops provide an opportunity to girls to get introduced to technology and get a taste
of what they can learn and how.
No prior programming experience is required for these workshops. These events are geared towards
introducing girls to the technological universe.
Each workshop is held at a sponsor company`s location. The tematics are not built on each other, any
workshop can be attended with prior knowledge. Our aim is to get the girls interested and make them
continue the learning.
Structure
 One day long workshop from 9am to 4pm on Saturdays
 One instructors and 3-4 tech volunteers work with a group of 15 girls
 Pitch at the end of the day, when each girl has to talk about her project in front of Skool,
instructors, volunteers and families
10-week long after school classes. During this activity girls work on specific projects once a week
for 10 weeks. The tematics are built on each other in this case, making the knowledge exchange,
deepeing knowledge and increasing their feeling of success as top goals.
Next to the programming part girls will cultivate the following soft skills:
 ● Presentation and public speaking
 ● Working in small and big teams
 ● Problem solving
 ● Structural thinking
Structure
 Once a week 90 mminutes of intensive hands-on learning with a group of 15 girls
 One instructors and 3-4 tech volunteers work the girls
 Half-time there is a review session,and the girls also can meet female role-models, field trips
 Pitch at the end of the day, when each girl has to talk about her project in front of Skool,
instructors, volunteers and families
Tool we use: Scratch. It is a free programming language and online community where you can create
your own interactive stories, games, and animations.
Our curriculum is project based learning with sharable technologies. We put everything in context,
make relevant to real life. Scratch is available for free of charge and there is an offline version too so
there is no obstacles for keep going on learning at home.
Project outcomes
Direct results: in two cities, 3 one-day workshop and one 1o-week long after school class focusing
on programming with 330 participants. Girls’s self-confidene will increase, they will believe
themselves and think of themselves not only users but the ones who can create and shape their
future.
Digital skills like typing and areas like :basic algorithm thinking, computer usage, vizual and verbal
knowledge, confidence with tech gadgets, motivation will be improved and increased.
Indirect results: Among families, friends and volunteers stereotypes like tech is not a girls thing will
change.
Human and civil rights enforcement
Monitoring and evaluatiour team is continuosly growing and our hiring policy is a fundamental
corporate value that our employees and our partners are judged solely on the basis of their actions
and their work performance, and without regard for their sex, age, sexual orientation, national or
ethnic background, political convictions, physical abilities, or other characteristics. Women and men
have equal opportunities at the workplace
In addition one of our indirect results is the gender equality impact as we work on increasing the
number of women in technology.
We focused on monitoring and evaluation to capture qualitative and quantitative data measuring the
program impact. Some indicators from post program surveys demonstrating how the programs were
directly achieving our mission of increasing the number of women interested in computer science.
At the end of each workshop and half-time during the 10 week after school class, we send out an
evaluation form to both the student girls, as well as to the instructors and volunteers, which include
questions on the curricula, the organization, the location, the equipment, the level of preparation from
the instructors and organizers’ side, what improvement they would suggest, what they like the most,
or the least. We also inclueded questions for the girls on more personal but equally important
questions on how they felt to be in their group, and what they take away with them. It is imporant that
our aim is not to turn every girl into developer. We would like them to be more confident in technology,
see this field as an option for them too.
Organizational structure
We are a women-led not-for-profit team who has decided to step up against the gender gap in
technology. Our team: full-timers: Koleszár Szilvi and Guzsaly Péter, part-timersl: Major Zsófi and Sóti
Anett.
Our work is also supported by professionals and a dedicated advisory board. Please see the full list
on our website: http://skool.org.hu The Advisory Board is an international network of experts who
agree to give Skool meaningful help on a regular basis in many different areas, including technology,
education, entrepreneurship, engineering and organizational development
Professional partners Óbudai University, ELTE IK T@T Lab,BME, RisingStack.
Financial structure
The project will be financed by tech companies and grant.
The project total budget
5.800.000 Ft
Program management
1.400.000 Ft
Professional team fees
1.000.000 Ft
Human Recoures fee
2.000.000 Ft
Traveling fee
800.000 Ft
Services
600.000 Ft
(Communication, office supplies, accounting, bank service fee etc)
Current budget from Partner Companies
Requested amount
2.300.000 Ft
3.500.000 Ft