Project Details
Acronym
Hera
Name
Helping Empower Women through Reskilling and Advancement
Duration
March 2025 - October 2027
GA Number
101196001
Action Type
European policy experimentation
Call
ERASMUS-EDU-2024-POL-EXP

About the project

The HERA project aims to empower women aged 45+ through reskilling and lifelong learning. Focused on increasing the participation of women in adult education, HERA addresses the challenges posed by the rapid digital and green transitions, while promoting social inclusion, cohesion, and economic growth.

HERA will create local ecosystems, called HERA Labs, to support women in assessing their skills, co-developing tailored upskilling and reskilling pathways, and preparing for jobs in sectors with skills shortages. These labs will combine Innovation Hubs, Living Labs, and Mutual Aid Groups, creating a human-centric, self-sustaining support system to help women manage career transitions in collaboration with public and private sector stakeholders.

To expand its impact, the project will develop the HERA Community Portal, an AI-powered platform offering personalized skills assessments, career guidance, and access to lifelong learning opportunities. This digital tool will ensure the project’s benefits extend beyond the pilot regions.

HERA also aims to influence policy by providing evidence-based results to policymakers, aligning with the European Skills Agenda, the European Pillar of Social Rights, and the New European Agenda for Adult Education 2021-2030. The project will produce Policy Recommendations to support the empowerment of women 45+ and address labour shortages in high-demand sectors.

The project ultimately seeks to close the gender gap in employment, offering women 45+ the skills needed for a future-ready workforce, while contributing to a more equitable and inclusive society.

Project Objectives

  • Create a safe and human-centric framework, through the methodology of HERA Labs, that will support the assessment of skills and the development of personal upskilling/reskilling pathways in Lifelong Learning.

  • Develop employment and entrepreneurial ecosystems with the participation of organisations from the private and public sectors to meet the needs of productive sectors facing skills shortages.

  • Promote and develop Learning to Learn (L2L) competences in women 45+. HERA will develop local ecosystems with the participation of women 45+ and private and public players, where through structured meetings-labs and systematic support, all participants will be able to assess the needs of each local context in new job positions, in sectors characterised by skill shortages and high demand for workers.

  • Develop an online AI-based platform to match the reskilling/upskilling needs of women 45+ with actual training and mentoring/counselling offers.

  • Promote the use of innovative research tools to assess the impact of specific policies on employment growth.

  • Work with policymakers, civil society and the quadruple helix of relevant stakeholders to promote the reduction of labour shortages in productive sectors at the cutting edge of the European economy.

Project Outputs

Hera Labs

Real-life ecosystems designed to support women 45+ in reskilling and upskilling. They combine Mutual Aid Groups, Living Labs, and Innovation Hubs, bringing together women, businesses, education providers, and policymakers to co-develop solutions for skills shortages and career transitions.

Hera Community Portal

AI-powered online platform designed to extend the impact of the HERA project. It allows women 45+ to access personalised skills assessments, discover relevant adult education programs, and track their learning progress. The portal fosters virtual communities, enabling users to connect, share experiences, and receive tailored support, while also scaling the project’s impact beyond geographic and sectoral boundaries.

Policy Recommendations

Evidence-based proposals developed from the project’s research and pilot activities, co-created with stakeholders and policymakers. They aim to address the challenges and needs identified in local communities, offering practical solutions to improve adult education, support women’s career transitions, and address skills shortages, at local, national, and European levels.

Events and Dissemination activities

Conferences, workshops, webinars, and other outreach efforts to share the outcomes, best practices, and key insights of the HERA project. These activities aim to engage stakeholders, policymakers, and the public, raising awareness about the project’s impact and promoting the adoption of its methodologies in broader contexts.

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