About Us

GGG project background

GirlsGoGreen(GGG) aims to empower Secondary Education (SE) girls with green skills through innovative Challenge-Based Learning strategies and engage them in sustainability practices. It promotes the Integrated - Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (I-STEM) approach to SE teachers in STEM disciplines as an interdisciplinary teaching method in environmental and Circular Economy (CE) contexts, particularly focusing on raising the girls’ interest in STEM. It has been estimated that the CE will create 700,000 new jobs in the EU by 2030 (Cambridge Econometrics, Trinomics and ICF 2018). Engineers and STEM professionals are the frontrunners of new technological development and innovation, and, therefore, it is assumed that the transition to a CE will increase the demand for new skills within engineering and the general STEM sector where women are underrepresented.

GGG Concrete objectives are as follows:

  1. Exploit and share best European SE practices in engaging SE girls in STEM education with a focus on green skills;
  2. Empower 10 SE STEM teachers with new knowledge and skills in I-STEM teaching within the environmental and CE context;
  3. Raise the STEM interest and awareness of CE in 60 secondary school girls from 2 EU schools and one informal girls' group through the pilot of GGG new tool as an informal educational activity;
  4. Provide valuable feedback for EU career guidance in 60 EU SE girls;
  5. Establish a European network of GGG ambassadors between secondary schools, local communities, and businesses through organising 3 Multiplier events Girls Go Green in PPC;

Project deliverables:

1 Digital toolkit of best practices in engaging girls in STEM;

1 Open online course for teachers Green Qualifications and Career guidance through Co-Creation Challenge based learning

approach (CCC_BL);

1 Girls Green Jobs Guide for schools;

3 Multiplier events Girls Go Green in BG, GR, TR;

1 European network GirlsGoGreen;

1 Educational Policy Guidelines with 1 GGG (Girls Go Green) repository of activities for Schools with min.10 activities;

 

In line with Erasmus + priorities, GGG will:

• build the capacity of 3 EU organisations to work transnationally and across sectors and partner new EU network GGG;

• address the common EU challenge - to support girls in STEM and green skills for green job careers;

• enable transformation and change -

60 SE girls will be enforced with green job skills and STEM knowledge,

10 SE teachers and educators empowered with new pedagogical skills in STEM for green jobs,

3 national education green jobs policies towards gender balance proposed,

GGG organisations - empowered with new strategies and tools to support SE girls in green and STEM education,

EU SE with new tools and strategy in STEM for GREEN skills for girls;

GGG falls into the Environmental Horizontal priority due to the green context of educational activities and STEM school priority due to introducing the I-STEM approach for green skills in SE.

 

GGG main project target groups involve:

60 secondary school girls to be empowered with green skills for green jobs and raised STEM interest.

The ILO (International Labour Organisation) defines green jobs as “the transformation of economies, enterprises, workplaces and labour markets into a sustainable, low-carbon economy providing decent work” (ILO, 2012a). According to the European Directorate-General for Climate Action (2023), the EU’s 55% emission reduction objective by 2030 and our ultimate 2050 climate neutrality goal will require deep changes in our economy and energy systems. From designing electric cars to operating huge solar farms that generate renewable electricity, new jobs and new skills will be needed to build this greener economy. Starting in childhood, girls and boys are socialised differently, deterring them from pursuing ‘difficult’ science and mathematics subjects (UNICEF 2020). Other factors may also be educational inequality, outdated teaching methods and curricula, and a lack of female STEM programs in school (EQUALS Global Partnership, ITU and UN Women 202, UNICEF 20201). 

Girls are just as likely as boys to work within the scientific sphere, but they account for just one in three STEM graduates (European Commission 2022a). In line with Article 13 (Encourage women’s participation in STEM) of the Commission’s Digital Education Action Plan, GGG endeavors to tackle the gender gap in STEM and ICT and empower min.60 teenage girls to re-engage in STEM learning and CE and increase their employability. The Eurostat report "Women in Science and Technology" (2022) states that on average Bulgaria comes with 58 % and Greece with 53% of women engaged in such jobs but mainly in services. Despite women making up the majority of the people employed in science and technology, they were underrepresented as scientists and engineers, accounting for only 41% of European total scientists and engineers in 2022 (Eurostat). In engineering professions (physical and engineering science technicians, engineering professionals), which are among the most common green jobs, women constitute less than 1 in 4 workers (OECD, 2023).  For example, the share of women in green jobs in Greece is 32% according to this article. Bulgaria have about 38% while Turkey has less than 20% of women in green jobs according to the pre-project study.

10 Secondary school STEM disciplines teachers and educators - mostly responsible for teen girls’ education;

The project organisations’ teachers and educators are not acquainted with such innovative pedagogy as the Co-Creation Challenge-based learning (CCC_BL) approach including scenarios as well as I-STEM and green jobs skills teaching. Only the Platon teachers have good experience in that domain. 

GGG indirect target groups

4 School staff and STEM leaders of 2 schools from GR and TR and 1 STEM educator manager from BG; They need new strategies and educational programs to support students in STEM and GREEN education.