Vocational training for women job-seekers
Theme: Promoting skills and development
Phase and Stage: DIGITAL – Upskilling / reskilling
Action: Training / mentoring
Beneficiaries: Women only;Girls only;Private companies;Public institutions
Users: Training providers; Private companies
Women remain significantly underrepresented in ICT across Europe despite the fact that the EU’s Digital Decade framework targets 20 million ICT specialists by 2030. The issue cannot be oversimplified as a leaky pipeline issue related mainly to young learners: adult women (whose livelihoods are at risk if they cannot re-train and upskill) face compounding barriers including care responsibilities, rigid recruitment processes, lack of role models, and internalised self-doubt. In Brussels employment gaps are most acute among women furthest from the labour market, notably younger women of non-European origin, only 2 in 10 of whom are in employment.
Interface3 was founded in Brussels in 1987 to address this gap. It is dedicated to the sustainable integration of women job-seekers into technical and technology careers, through free in-depth training and an open-access philosophy that allows for a more flexible selection programme than setting rigid educational prerequisites. Its key objectives are to tackle invisible barriers to entry into tech careers for women job-seekers of all ages, backgrounds, and qualification levels.
Interface3 currently runs 13 programmes (spanning IT, data analytics, cybersecurity, systems administration, electromechanics) through small in-person groups with 1400 hours’ tuition including a significant proportion of practical and project work, covering soft skills alongside technical competence, and ensuring learners complete internships that help them become job-ready. This on-ramp has a sustained track record of achieving lasting employment outcomes: close to 70% of learners are employed within six months of graduation, with some recruiters validating a 80–85% retention after two years.
THE CHALLENGE
Despite strong and growing demand for digital skills in Belgium and across the EU, women job-seekers were largely excluded from this growth. The barriers are not primarily a lack of interest or aptitude, but a set of compounding, often invisible obstacles: lack of confidence, isolation in male-dominated environments, absence of role models, and rigid recruitment or training prerequisites (formal qualifications, prior technical experience) that many women – particularly those re-entering the workforce, changing careers, or facing socio-economic barriers – could not meet.
Short-format upskilling programmes and peer-to-peer e-learning, common in the sector, do not address these barriers: many candidates fall at the first hurdle as their selection results are often less good than male counterparts and retention can be an issue. Such programmes assumed a baseline of confidence and prior exposure to tech that many candidates did not have, and offer a less structured pathway from training into sustained employment. The result is a persistent gap between the scale of unmet demand for digital talent and the number of women able to access it.
OUR SOLUTION
Interface3 has developed long-format (approximately one-year), fully free qualifying training model, structured around three integrated pillars: technical rigour, personalised guidance, and close alignment with employer needs. Key design choices distinguish this model from shorter upskilling formats:
- No financial or rigid educational prerequisites for entry, opening access to women with qualification levels ranging from no secondary (or no locally recognised) diploma to Master’s level
- Confidence-building and soft skills integrated throughout the training, not offered as a separate or optional module
- Training delivered in small groups, in person, in women-only (“non-mixité choisie”) cohorts
- Many external tutors who are also professionally active and can regularly update curriculum content in line with sectoral developments, including the integration of AI and automation
- Coaching continues through to employment placement, rather than ending at certification
OUTCOMES
- Some 70% of learners are in employment within six months of completing their training
- A high proportion remain in employment after two years: 80-85% retention rate where employers partnered with us to build a talent pipeline
- The model operates on a demonstrated cost-efficient basis
- Over nearly 40 years, Interface3 has trained several thousand women job-seekers in Brussels, currently reaching 200–300 learners per year across 13 qualifying programmes (IT, data analytics, cybersecurity, systems administration, electromechanics, and others)
- Employment translates into growing employer recognition, and contribution to local economic growth
LESSONS LEARNED
- Duration matters: a year-long format gives learners the time they need to address confidence and soft-skill gaps: this is a key driver of retention, not just placement
- Removing prerequisites expands the talent pool without lowering outcomes: candidates can achieve comparable employment results, provided the accompaniment is sufficiently structured
- Employer validation strengthens credibility and sustainability: placement and retention data is critical
- Confidence-building needs to be embedded across the full training journey to be effective
MOTIVATIONS OF THE PROJECT
The founders of Interface3, and the team that works there are very loyal and committed to the project and driven by the way they see women’s lives transformed. Lifelong learning and reskilling opportunities are rapidly becoming a strategic imperative as over 30% of professionals’ current skills are likely to be obsolete by 2030. We understand the need to become more vocal about the place of vocational training opportunties in the full spectrum of learning options – and for women-only solutions to be among the options on offer insofar as there is a proven need for specificities certain women present to be addressed.
INITIAL EXECTED RESULTS AND FINAL OUTCOME
One of the challenges that remains is making sure the benefits of reskilling are understood so that initiatives such as Interface3 are nurtured, replicated and sufficienly well funded.
REPLICABILITY
We believe more could be done to map and share best practices and would be happy to engage with other vocational training organisations and IVETs accordingly.
