Mit-Mut

Background Women are still underrepresented in the area of information and communication technologies (ICT), and this is particularly true for female entrepreneurs: In Austria, the proportion of female businesswomen in the business sector “provision of IT services” is only 8.1 % (Statistik Austria 2013). At the same time, according to economic forecasts, an increasing skill shortage is to be expected in the Austrian ICT sector within the next years. Entrepreneurial skills should be promoted early, ideally with girls in school, to guarantee an easy access to entrepreneurship for them. Existing projects mainly aim at older girls who have already made their decision about a technical or job-specific school or education. Aims The project MIT-MUT addresses this issue before the first career decision is made and aims at girls under the age of 14 years. In order to motivate girls to choose career paths in the ICT-sector and to encourage them to be active as entrepreneurs, girls who take part in the project are supported in developing two specific skills: two defined key competences by the EU for lifelong learning (2006/962/EG) – computer skills and entrepreneurial skills. Thus, the MIT-MUT project aims at • Developing entertaining and motivating ways of making girls familiar with attractive and up-to-date occupational options, with respect to entrepreneurship in the ICT sector; • Promoting entrepreneurship competences and skills (such as creativity, innovativeness, initiative, readiness to assume risks, goal-oriented behaviour, project management); • Introducing successful female ICT-entrepreneurs as role models and initiating networking opportunities between ICT-entrepreneurs and girls; and • Employing the motivating potential of social learning and game-based learning and developing didactic scenarios for their application in the teaching context.