The Digital Leadership Institute has been awarded support from the Digital Belgium Skills Fund (DBSF) for its work to increase participation of girls and women in digital studies and careers in Belgium. In collaboration with the King Boudewijn Foundation and through support of the European Commission, DBSF aims to increase social inclusion through digital skills, especially for young people. Launched in 2016 by Mr. Alexander De Croo, Deputy Prime Minister of Belgium and Minister for the Digital Agenda, the Digital Belgium Skills Fund has a budget of €18 million which will be invested over the next three years on initiatives that teach key digital skills, including basic coding and cyber security.
Since its founding in Brussels in 2014, the Digital Leadership Institute has pioneered European and global initiatives to bridge the gender gap and digital divide, with a focus on delivering digital skills and career opportunities to the most under-served and socially excluded communities in the world. With the support of DBSF, DLI is pleased to introduce our new team members and the exciting initiatives they will be leading in Fall 2017:
20 September-13 December – Digital Muse After School Programme: From 20 September to 13 December, DLI will organise the Digital Muse After School program, a Wednesday afternoon (14:00-16:00) program in Brussels (EN/FR/NL) for up to 40 girls, aged 11 to 16 years old, in order to encourage them to pursue studies and careers in ESTEAM (Entrepreneurship and Arts powered by STEM).
Digital Muse After School Schedule:
The inaugural DMAS program will focus on project work that introduces digital-creative skills and career paths to participants around four themes:
- 20 September-4 October: “Talk2Me” – Smartphone App Development with MIT App Inventor for Android
- 11-25 October: “Teen Blogstar” – Web Design with WordPress
- 8-22 November: “See What I Mean” – Designing Infographics & Data Visualisation with Tableau
- 29 November-13 December: “Future of Fashion” – Fashion Technology and Wearables with Adafruit
For more information about the DMAS program or to register please follow this link or contact Ms. Valentina Calà.
14-15 October – Move It Forward female digital starters weekend with Women in Music and the Arts: On 14-15 October at BOZAR, in celebration of Women Code Festival, European Code Week, the International Week of the Girl Child and Ada Lovelace Day, DLI will partner with the Brussels Women in Tech Platform and the Brussels Electronic Marathon to organise our fourth Move It Forward Brussels event promoting female tech startup by teen and adult women from across Belgium, with women in music and the arts.
For more information about the Move It Forward weekend please contact Ms. Katja Legisa.
15 October – Digital Brusselles Music Showcase at BOZAR with Brussels Electronic Marathon: As the closing event of the Move It Forward weekend and Women Code Festival, Digital Brusselles is thrilled to partner to support the Brussels Electronic Marathon with a musical showcase at BOZAR on Sunday, 15 October that is open to the public. The showcase will feature women and non-binary artists from across Belgium as well as projects from the MIF weekend.
For more information about the Digital Brusselles Music Showcase with BEM17 please contact Ms. Katja Legisa.
16 October-30 November – “CyPro” Cyber Professional Training and Job Placement Program for Women: In Fall 2017, DLI will launch the first cohort of its CyPro Cyber Professional Training and Job Placement Program for Women, an initiative that aims to increase participation of women with work experience in strategic IT fields such as cyber security, data science, cloud computing and CRM. Working with key content partners — including AWS, Cisco, and Salesforce — the program will offer participants an IT expert certification path in parallel with on-the-job work experience through paid placement in IT organisations. The program will kick off with a free, expert-led, 6-week CyPro “First Steps” IT Career training series for women. Delegates completing the entire program will be eligible for a globally-recognised IT Essentials professional certification.
CyPro “First Steps” Schedule & Instructors:
- 16-20 October: Intro to IoT with Ms. Mai Ensmann – Cisco Networking Academy Course Certificate
- 23-26 October: Intro to Cybersecurity with Ms. Hiba Khalid – Cisco Networking Academy Course Certificate
- 26-27 October: Linux Unhatched with Ms. Hiba Khalid – Cisco Networking Academy Course Certificate
- 6-28 November: IT Essentials with Ms. Hiba Khalid – Cisco Networking Academy Certificate & CompTIA A+ professional certification
- 29-30 November: AWS Technical Essentials with Ms. Hiba Khalid – AWS Educate Course Badge
- 30 November 18:00-19:00 – CyPro “First Steps” Graduation Ceremony as part of 2017 European Ada Awards Ceremony at BeCentral in Brussels
For more information about CyPro, please contact Ms. Mai Ensmann.
21 October-18 November – Digital Brusselles Female Digital Starter Series: Over the course of one month, the Digital Brusselles female tech incubator will host a free, four-part Female Digital Starters training series that will address themes unique to digital startup by women. If you have joined previous inQube events, these trainings will build on the skills have learned and help move you forward on your path to digital startup! If you have not participated in past events, do not worry. The content of these courses is geared toward new and recent starters, and all participants will benefit to the maximum.
Female Digital Starters Schedule & Instructors:
For more information about the Female Digital Starters series, please contact Ms. Katja Legisa.
25 October – Digital Brusselles Female Tech Incubator Launch: On 25 October at BeCentral in Brussels, DLI will launch the first female tech incubator in Europe, building on its pioneering five-year inQube work promoting female digital startup. The Digital Brusselles incubator will support DLI’s world class “Move It Forward” weekends with ongoing tech and entrepreneurship training for community-members; provide a space for hot-desking, networking and events for female tech starters; and facilitate consultation with experts who will provide broad-reaching support for launching women-led tech projects into the Belgian startup ecosystem.
For more information about the Digital Brusselles launch event, please contact Ms. Katja Legisa.
30 November – 2017-18 European Ada Awards Ceremony: In celebration of the 202nd anniversary of the birth of Ada Lovelace, the world’s first computer programmer, DLI will host the European Ada Awards in Brussels. For the fifth consecutive year, DLI will recognise outstanding women and girls in digital fields across Europe, as well as organisations working to increase the participation of women and girls in tech. This year, the awards ceremony will take place on 30 November at BeCentral in Brussels, and nominations in the following categories are open until 30 October:
For more information about the 2017-18 European Ada Awards, please contact Ms. Loredana Bucseneanu.
To keep up-to-date about these and other activities organized by DLI, please consult our calendar and follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. For press and media inquiries about Digital Brusselles or other DLI projects, please contact Ms. Katrien Geraedts.
6 September – 
13 September – 
15 September – 
19 September – 
26 September – 
28 September – 
4 October – 
9 October – 
19 October – 
11 October – 
14 April – 
11 May – 
Ever wonder what it would be like to produce your own radio show or conduct interviews as a radio journalist? Joining us at Girl Tech Fest 2017, radio show host Claire-Marie Healy of Radio Alma’s ‘Attention, Bébé a Bord!’ will introduce the girls to the exciting world of radio! Broadcasting from the Girl Tech Fest itself in a radio studio, the girls will conduct their very own interviews with the many women in STEM mentors, volunteers and participants throughout the day.
13-17 March – 
8 March – 
22 March – 
23 March – 
28 March –