Digitalisation is currently omnipresent and can no longer be ignored. The same applies to the ongoing efforts to improve the proportion of women in management positions. At the beginning of 2018, the project lead (University of Applied Labour Studies—HdBA) was contacted by a women’s network with the need to address those issues simultaneously. This is because many women, especially in management positions, feel unprepared for the upcoming digital changes in their work environment. The project partners came up with the idea to support those women through professional counselling.
DIGIGEN indirectly addresses the gender gap in management positions. By addressing the needs of female digital leaders, the programme helps to create career opportunities and career mobility. The main angle is to strengthen women’s confidence in their digital competencies and support them regarding their management careers, all through professional counselling or coaching.
DIGIGEN offers a scientifically based and practically tested up-skilling concept to expand knowledge on counselling female digital leaders. This concept is either a framework for a further education institution (e.g., university, coaching firm, chamber, etc.) or a self-learning offer for guidance professionals and other interested persons, such as female leaders. Interested education institutions can use the material to implement a training course on the suggested topics. Guidance professionals and other interested persons can use the online platform to learn independently.
The website is aimed at anyone who wishes to learn about digital leadership, female leadership, and professional counselling for digital female leadership. Within the online platform, different topics deal with those aspects, giving scientific and practical insights.
The up-skilling programme is either a framework for a further education institution (e.g., university, coaching firm, chamber, etc.) or a self-learning offer for guidance professionals and other interested persons, such as female leaders. Interested education institutions can use the material to implement a training course on the suggested topics. Guidance professionals and other interested persons can use the online platform to learn independently.
There are no specific prerequisites for guidance professionals to participate in the courses. However, participants will have a better learning experience if they already have professional experience.
The online-platform does not provide a machanism to track one’s progress within the course.
Within a face-to-face training format, there are opportunities for joint discussions and interactions among participants, implying collaboration. The online platform does not provide such collaboration opportunities.
To participate in face-to-face training, an organisation in your area must implement the DIGIGEN up-skilling programme as a course. If no such organisation is nearby, you can learn with the materials provided on the online platform.
The order of the topics was carefully designed to build on each other, so we recommend following it. However, all topics are intended also to be stand-alone and can be understood without the previous topic. Also, with more experienced guidance professionals, it can be more engaging to start with the case studies from Topic 5 rather than with the theoretical input of the other topics.
No, the up-skilling programme itself does not suggest exams or assessments. This allows the implementing organisation to choose an examination form that best suits their learning style. Possible types of examination are a knowledge test as a written exam, a concept to tackle one of the case studies from Topic 5, or a supervised role-play/counselling session.
Yes, all the training materials (presentations, texts, resources, …) can be used in one’s teaching. As long as the Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 is not violated, all the material can be adjusted to the individual’s needs and interests. For more details, visit the Creative Commons website to view the full license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/).
Trainers have access to all the materials provided by DIGIGEN. This includes ready-to-use presentations (PowerPoint and PDF files), extensive background information called Readers (Word and PDF files), a didactical framework (PDF) with the didactical concept and implementation suggestions, a structural handbook (Word and PDF file) with descriptions of each topic as well as practical information on materials, literature and the time frame, and a step-by-step instruction (Word and PDF file) with explanations on every slide or other interactions in the course.
The DIGIGEN up-skilling programme is a framework. In this understanding, it is absolutely possible to use the materials according to one’s own needs and likings. It is allowed to rearrange topics, insert slides into the presentation, or delete unwanted aspects. As long as the Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 is not violated, anything is possible. For more details, visit the Creative Commons website to view the full license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/).
No, DIGIGEN does not require any specific training to be taught. However, we recommend having some experience as a trainer (in other contexts). If the material is unknown to a trainer, the Readers on each topic provide a first glance at the required background knowledge. Further literature and sources can be looked up in the readers.
If a trainer is well acquainted with the content of the up-skilling programme’s topics, not much preparation time is needed. If trainers need to get acquainted first, they should take about double the time they intend to teach.
Yes, it can be used as a micro-credential or executive seminar. As long as the Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 is not violated, all the material can be adjusted to the individual’s needs and interests. For more details, visit the Creative Commons website to view the full license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/).
The up-skilling programme is desigend for 5 ETCS. However, depending on the extent to which the topics are covered, it can be up to 15 ETCS.
All DIGIGEN material is licensed under the Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-SA 4.0. “NonCommercial” (NC) means no use for commercial purposes and prohibits uses that are “primarily intended for or directed toward commercial advantage or monetary compensation.” Please see https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/ for more questions. If in doubt, please contact the DIGIGEN partnership (see contact information).
Yes, the material is free to use. Please be aware that all the material is licensed under the Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/).
All materials of the up-skilling programme are available in English, German, Dutch, and Hungarian.
The material is licensed under the Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/).
There is no frequent update to the material. Minor corrections (e.g. grammatical or spelling errors) may occur, but will only have a minor impact on the content.
If you have any difficulties with the course material, please contact one of the project partners. You can either contact the project lead ( Hochschule.digigen@
Yes, we are delighted to hear your suggestions for improvement. Please get in touch with any project partner (Dutch, Hungarian, German, all English) or the project lead directly (Hochschule.digigen@
The materials are pre-sorted to allow targeted access. Trainers have access to all the documents produced. Guidance Professionals see all presentations and background information but need the instructions for trainers. Female leaders see the same as counsellors but not the theoretical aspects of counselling. All documents are fully available in the download area, regardless of the target group.
The DIGIGEN material was created with the font “Jost”. If this font is not installed on your computer, it might be that the PowerPoint (pptx) and Word files (docx) look a bit deranged. “Jost” is freely available on GoogleFonts (https://fonts.google.com/specimen/Jost)
Access to the Internet and the digigen website is necessary to access the training material in the download area. No log-in is required.
If you have any technical questions, please contact one of the project partners. The best contacts are the project lead (Hochschule.digigen@
The material will be available on the website indefinitely.