Abstract:

Motto “Educating and empowering local women to start a positive change in society.”
The project MATAPE (Mum, Dad, Take Care, Work) was created on experience of women struggling to return to labour market after maternity leave. Czech women stay at home with each child usually for three years and after that time they feel that they lack communication skills, self confidence and often do not know what to do. There is lack of part time jobs in the Czech Republic. The project MATAPE (09/2012- 06/2015) increases potential of women in a complex way. That means a combination of career guidance, experience based training in areas of self development and soft skills, English and computer skills, e-learning, webinars and coaching. Participants are guided in personal development towards taking responsibility for their own life. One of the things we lead our participants to realise is that the skills gained by bringing up children in a respectful way, can be easily transfered to work later.We also encourage changes in attitudes of employers. We do that via gender audits, employers obtain practical recommendations how to implement flexible forms of work. Short film (project output) about employers helps change perception of working parents in general public. We believe that self-confident women with high self-esteem, who get the chance to participate on decision about the amount of their workload and keep the balance between family and work, can be positive agents of families and consequently create positive change in society.

Now, twelve months before the end of the project already 188 people including 50+ women and 3 men have attended our training courses (goal for whole project was 103 people). Participants’ feedback show that 95% of attendees confirm improvement of their communication skills and self-confidence. Thirteen participants managed to change their workload according to their needs or have started their own business.
Gender expert of MATAPE became respected advisor for employers, 8 companies have increased awareness of work-life balance. Hundreds of people have been inspired by our video where employers speak about how and why they implemented changes in working conditions for people taking care of their children or eldery parents.

To show the benefits of the project practically we present experience of one of the participants. Martina applied to MATAPE after being unemployed for over a year after maternity leave. She came with an attitude with wich it was impossibile to find a job: "During MATAPE I realized what I can do, I started to belive that I can find a job and during my coaching sessions I realized what I need to do and what I really want. Project coordinator helped me to arrange a weekly volunteer experience in the Center for elderly. I discovered that I enjoy this work and find it fulfilling. This experience and information gained during the course helped me to get to a job in a nursing home and consequently get a full time job. I also decided to continue in educating myself as I realized that it is helping me to develop and live more fulfilling life with my family and at work. Educational project MATAPE therefore helped me to discover an entirely new profession, my skills and possibilities."

Keywords:

Empowering women, educating women, employer, coaching, labour market, career guidance, unemployment, family.