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CAN WE CHANGE THE TRADITIONAL EDUCATION METHODS?
TELMA: A computer science and telecommunication curriculum for unemployed women in Lower Austria
Hilda Tellioğlu1 and Martha Weber2
1 Vienna University of Technology, Institute for Design and Assessment of Technology Department of CSCW, Argentinierstrasse 8/187, A-1040 Vienna, Austria.
Tel: ++43-1-58801-4492 Fax: ++43-1-5042478 Email: [email protected]
2 Verein AlFa, Kirchengasse 11/16, A-1070 Vienna, Austria. Tel: ++43-2864-287815 Fax: +43-2864-287814 Email: [email protected]
Paper to be presented at the European GASAT Conference (Gender & Science & Technology) „Where are we now? What next?”
Liverpool 5-8 January 1998
Abstract This paper is about the development of a curriculum for unemployed women in Lower Austria. After an empirical study in the region (with key actors of nine representative companies, with unemployed women as potential trainees, and with some regional experts) we designed a curriculum, named TELMA (Frauen in TELekommunikation und InforMAtik), with a focus on electronic data processing (edp) and telecommunication. The main goal of the curriculum is to give these women knowledge and skills in computer science to use computers, networks and telecommunication in their future daily work on the one hand, and to become professionals in the field of computer systems like system administrators, telecommunication and network specialists, edp consultants or trainers, Internet providers and edp vendors on the other. The courses are embedded in small and large scale projects, not only within the education group, but in regional companies as well. We had to deal with a lot of political and regional hindrances and both hidden and articulated obstacles and problems raised during the development of TELMA and afterwards, because of women (that is us) offering a curriculum for other women (that is the group of unemployed women) within a male-dominated area like computer sciences and telecommunication.
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1. Introduction The project started in February 1997 and the development of the curriculum was finished in July 1997. The project is funded by the Arbeitsmarktservice (AMS), the government office responsible for the employment in the region, and is carried out by the non-profit association Verein AlFa (whereas the project team consisted mainly of both authors of this paper).
We started with an empirical study in the region. We visited nine of most representative companies and interviewed a key person (either the owner or the personnel manager) in each in order to get an overview of market demands in the region. We also contacted 14 unemployed women from the region as potential trainees in order to find out what their current status is, what their background in education and profession is, and what their past experiences in regard to occupation are. We analysed the results of the investigations and finished a report at the end of May 1997. We then used these results as a base for designing curriculum contents and its teaching methods. From July to the end of October 1997 we made a lot of changes to the original structure of TELMA because it became obvious that it was impossible to start with TELMA as scheduled because of strong restrictions in financing. We had to reduce the time we originally planned for TELMA (from 18 months to 12 months) and therefore we also had to cut down the contents of courses. We also had to remove the computer supported self-learning phases from the curriculum, because the costs of the technical equipment necessary at the homes of the trainees were found unreasonable.
In this paper we present the last version of TELMA, but of course we also show the main idea and form of the computer-supported self-learning method we originally planned, because we believe it is relevant from the point of view of education methods. First we describe briefly the situation in the region regarding women unemployment. After summarising the results of our empirical studies we provide an outline of TELMA, with its goals, contents, structure, and teaching methods. We discuss main problems we had during and after the development of the curriculum, before concluding the paper.
2. Situation at the beginning of the project: Regional problems and women unemployment
Due to employment statistics in Austria the overall number of employed women increases on the national level although the rate of the unemployment among women is higher than among men. If we study the market situation in Lower Austria, especially the northern part including four districts Gmünd, Horn, Waidhofen/Thaya and Zwettl the ratio of women unemployment looks even worse. In these regions women are rather affected by the shortage of work in the production area where low qualification is required like textile and clothing industries or in the metal industry. To illustrate the un/employment rates of women in the four districts we show some relevant numbers of the region (AMS NÖ, 1997):
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• Among the four districts Zwettl is the one with lowest women employment (37% - the national average is 42%). It is the only district where the number of female employed persons has increased (+1.1%) - but at the same time the women unemployment has decreased 22.8% compared to 1996.
a)
37%
63%
female
male
mloyment
8,513,5
b)
Figure 1. a) The fe/male employment rate in the whole employment in Zwettl. b) The percentage of unemployed wo/men in Zwettl.
• Also in Horn the number of unemployed women decreased (-5.6%). Horn is the second district with the low women employment which is 1.4% less than 1996.
a)
40%
60%
female
male
mloyment
7,110,7
b)
Figure 2. a) The fe/male employment rate in the whole employment in Horn.
b) The percentage of unemployed wo/men in Horn.
• We can observe Waidhofen/Thaya as the worst district with 17.4% unemployment among women which increased 18% compared to 1996. The number of employed women was less than the year before (-2.8%), and Waidhofen/Thaya is still the district with the highest women employment.
a)
42%
58%
female
male
mloyment
17,4 13,6
b)
Figure 3. a) The fe/male employment rate in the whole employment in W/Th.
b) The percentage of unemployed wo/men in Waidhofen/Thaya.
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• Although in the district Gmünd the ratio of employed women decreased only 0.2% in comparison to 1996, the situation of women for Gmünd is as bad as in Waidhofen/Thaya. The women unemployment is 5.4% more than last year.
a)
41%
59%
female
male
mloyment
15,9
14,7
b)
Figure 4. a) The fe/male employment rate in the whole employment in Gmünd.
b) The percentage of unemployed wo/men in Gmünd.
Besides the regional circumstances, like density of population, infrastructure, and the situation of the labour market, there are additional factors strongly influencing the socio-economic development of the Lower Austria (Johannes Kepler Universität Linz, 1995). Some of them are (ÖIR, 1994, p.55):
• structural trends - increasing internationalisation • spatial trends - free trade market vs. generating blocks like European Union,
NAFTA, east Asia • geopolitical trends - opening of eastern European countries, European Union.
Through the integration of European countries a profitable co-operation is aimed at whereas the border regions are expected to build a bridge to the surrounding countries. Concerning the situation of Austria the question is, whether there is a chance for positive development and improvement of the regional structure after the economic liberalisation in eastern European countries, like the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Slovenia and the opening of the borders to Austria especially in Lower Austria (Niederösterreich), Burgenland, Vienna, and Südsteiermark. Textile and trade industries, wood processing and agricultural production can also be found in the neighbouring countries and there is a high competition between the companies on both sides of the border. To avoid the competition companies try to cooperate because they1 believe that co-operation is the only way to survive in the market place. Some examples are the co-operation between Austria and Czech Republic in the textile and clothing industry, the initiative ARGE Grenznutzen and the ACCESS industry park Gmünd/Ceske Velenice. Companies from Austria and Czech Republic plan investments together, share and exchange information and technology. The open borders also have negative side effects, namely the displacement of production units to Czech Republic and, as a result, the unemployment in the region Lower Austria (ÖIR, 1994, p.310).
There are several studies and (political and economic) suggestions to stop the negative influences on the Austrian border regions. One of them is shown to demonstrate the development process in Austria concerning the current situation of the neighbouring regions and changes in their labour market in the near future (see Table 1):
1 This refers to the statements of the interview partners in the study (Johannes Kepler Universität Linz, 1995).
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Phase 1: Disassembly 1989-1990
Phase 2: Decline 1990-1993
Phase 3: Recovery 1993-1998
Phase 4: Stabilisation 1999-
Definition of the reform goals and starting with their implementation
Negative influences of the transformation
Politics and strategies for stabilisation
Actions to change the structures
• Liberalisation of the foreign trade
• Liberalisation of product prices
• Reduction of subventions/subsidies
• Start with privatisation
• Privatisation • Falling-off of the
production • Increase of the
unemployment • High inflation • Increasing poverty
• Economic growth on a lower level
• Imbalance at the labour market
• Higher economic growth rate
• Success in the foreign trade
• Stabilisation of the unemployment rates
• Existence of social security networks
Table 1. Transformation process categorised in phases (Schremmer and Krajasits, 1992, p.30).
In service industries an increasing unemployment occurred 1995 (AMS NÖ LGS, 1996) even if the employment increased since 1994 (+4,500 persons employed). Due to the growing job competition between the unemployed people the unemployment in the service industries increased: 45,363 people in this area are unemployed which is 41.5% of all unemployed persons in the region, and this shows an increase of 2.9% or 1,293 persons in comparison to 1994. This concentrates mainly to the trade market (+7.6%), office work (+2.2%) and to educational and cultural jobs (+4.6%). In the four districts (Gmünd, Horn, Waidhofen/Thaya and Zwettl) a population reduction at about 17% are expected till 2021 (Baum et al., 1997). The regional unemployment forecast till 2001 expects a decrease of 2,300 jobs. A high migration to the urban space and commuting are still strategies to solve employment problems in the region. But in the urban spaces outside of the region (Vienna, Krems, St. Pölten, etc.) there already is no need for new employees except for very high qualified ones. There is a big contradiction in regard to employment demands in the region. On the one hand the number of unemployed people is very high. On the other hand the only available jobs cannot be occupied because of the high qualification requirements. 51.3% of all unemployed persons in these four districts (44.6% in the entire Lower Austria) only finished the (9-year) elementary school. The number of the unemployed women without any vocational qualification is very high in the region. 62% in Gmünd, 51% in Horn, 58% in Waidhofen/Thaya, and 59% unemployed women in Zwettl have only the (9-year) elementary school. Some women show better education level like finishing business schools. In spite of this they have similar employment problems. On the other hand, for people (men or women) who finished a technical school (called in German ‘HTL’, Höhere Technische Lehranstalt2) there are better job opportunities also in the region.
Although the women employment in Austria increased 1.9% nationally since February 1995, women still do not get better-paid jobs. In this region there is no need
2 In these schools the number of female students is far less than the number of male students.
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for more office work for which the most women are currently qualified. To change this situation new and more attractive qualification and education facilities, like in the fields of edp and telecommunication, must be offered regionally.
3. Empirical studies in the region We started with empirical studies to find out what the qualifications and expectations of the women, which could be seen as potential trainees, were and what plans the companies had for the next future regarding technology development and new personnel requirements. In the following we summarise the main results of our in-depth interviews with some unemployed women and with the key actors of some regional companies to give an overview about qualification requirements in the region.
3.1 About the women returners Our experiences with the unemployed women is mainly based on the vocational guidance courses offered by Verein AlFa since eight years in the region. Besides the job possibilities in the region the courses include exercises regarding how to find the appropriate profession and to orientate oneself through and within possible work areas considering the market changes. AlFa also tries to help these women in writing their curriculum vitae and the first letters to send to the companies. Through this dense interaction with unemployed women we were familiar with their knowledge and skills, their educational and professional background, motivations, interests and expectations as we started to develop the curriculum.
Nevertheless we talked with 14 women as potential returners about their situation, background and job plans in the future. In the following we show the questions we asked these women and a summary of their answers to these questions: • About their current situation: Do they have (small) children or other persons to
care for, do they have support in the family regarding child care, how can they (re)arrange the activities at home if they want to start to work part-time or full-time, what are the current financial situation and restrictions in the family, how mobile are they, can they travel, do they have a car, etc.
The most of the women we interviewed are married and have two children. They are the only person in the family responsible for the entire household and for child care. Nine of 14 own a car or can use the family car. Two women can imagine to buy one in case of an employment.
• About their education: What is their current education (school type), do they have an additional (vocational) education, did they have edp courses in the school, in which detail, etc. Eight of 14 finished a business school, 3 a complete education in an apprenticeship (in the industry, insurance, and office work sectors), and 3 a high school with a focus on business and economics. One of these women gave up her study at the university after two semesters. Surprisingly only one woman learned some basics about computers in the school. All had English lessons and 3 of them learned French additionally. Only in two of 14 households there is a computer that is mostly used by their spouses.
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• About their job experiences and occupational education: In which areas and positions did they work till now, for which activities and/or persons were they responsible, which activities did they like/dislike at most, how long were they employed, when and where was their last employment, etc. The occupational experiences of these women vary strongly. Whereas the youngest woman had a job for 9 months, the oldest had one for 24 years. The employment time of the interviewed women is 6 years on the average. Most of them were employed as administrative staff for office, basic accounting or documentation work. Only one woman was working in a completely different area than she was qualified. All interviewees claimed that their job was not demanding and therefore most time very boring.
• About the unemployment phase: How long are they not employed, did they attend to any course during their unemployment, did they have part-time jobs, if yes what was it, etc. Seven of the women are unemployed since 10 years or longer (to 16 years), 4 since 2-4 years, 3 since 6, 7 and 8 years. With three exceptions all stopped working after the birth of their first child. Three women returned to their job after 9 years, but this time only part-time. Only one among these women attended a computer course during her unemployment.
• About desire to return to work: What are their demands on new jobs, in which areas did they want to work, what do they think about the job possibilities in the marketplace, how is their time management, are they flexible temporally and geographically, what do they want to get as a salary for their work in the future, etc. The main reason to return is financial. Some women want to earn money in addition to their husband. Eight of 14 women mentioned that they would like to bring new challenges into their life. Only two women wanted to work full-time, two others could imagine to work 30 hours a week. But the rest wants to work at most half-time because of their responsibilities at home.
• About their interests in TELMA: Are they interested to attend to another education, if yes under which temporal, financial and regional circumstances, what are their interests and knowledge they could bring to TELMA, what are their experiences with technology and non-traditional occupations, what the reaction of their families be like if they wanted to participate in TELMA, etc. All women we interviewed were very interested in TELMA. They are uncertain regarding the child care facilities and the time structure of TELMA. They told us that they are available only in the mornings till their children come back from the school. They also mentioned that they cannot pay fees for the education, the place where TELMA is held must be near to their home, and they want to have good (job) opportunities after finishing the curriculum.
Based on the results of our regional investigations we tried to find out what kind unemployed women are able to participate in TELMA as trainees. We decided to accept women with experiences in economics and office organisation who want to work in these fields again, women returners after a job break, women with small children, women with no usable knowledge and skills, and older women with long
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job experiences. Besides candidates must be interested in computer science and telecommunication, they have to be temporally flexible, regionally mobile (i.e. have a car), and speak basic English. We had to consider other circumstances which influence the availability and time resources of trainees, like long distances between the training place and women’s home, no public transportation in the region, no infrastructure for child care in the region especially for afternoons, weekends and holidays. If it is necessary we are willing to offer a regional child care facility adapted for the needs of these women.
3.2 About the companies In this part of our empirical investigation we mainly asked about the status of the companies’ current technology and their plans for the future regarding technology and personnel. We summarised the results of the interviews as follows:
• About their software environment and networks. Most companies we interviewed use PCs with Microsoft Windows for WorkgroupsTM or Microsoft Windows 95TM, and Microsoft OfficeTM. They expect newcomers to be familiar and experienced with these systems and applications. The personnel managers or the owners of the companies would like to employ people who know more than what an end user usually does. There is big demand for super users and system administrators who cannot be easily found in the region. Additionally it is very hard to find and contract a computer company in the region that can support and maintain a company’s computer equipment (HW, SW, and the network). Companies do not have company-wide networks because they need people who are able to administer the network, the data on the network and access to the data, train the end users, handle all types of network and computer errors, connect the company network to the Internet and maintain the Internet pages, etc. But all interview partners stressed the necessity and importance of networks both within the whole company and between the company’s central and local offices.
Some companies do have large production units with computers that are not compatible with conventional office systems. The trend is that computers used for these production units will successively be replaced by PCs (with computer aided manufacturing systems, CAM) which means that they can be connected to the installed office systems. The shift from centrally implemented computer systems (like mainframes or Unix-based systems) to PC-based networks will take some time. The last large group of computer systems used in the region is CAD (computer aided design) applications that are used in architectural offices on the one hand and in graphics and design on the other. There is a big lack of regional support in this area as well.
• About their use of telecommunication and dial-up connections. All companies are very interested in new telecommunication systems like the World Wide Web, all services of the Internet and dial-up connections mostly for data exchange between geographically distributed offices of the company. All plan to be present in the Internet in the very near future because they believe that this is an opportune marketing strategies nowadays. On the company sites there is
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absolutely no know-how about areas in which the Internet can be used as a new technology offering new possibilities for their business. They even do not have employees capable to set up an Internet connection, maintain the Web pages and file transfer (ftp) connections. There is also a great demand for people that can design and develop a company’s Web pages according to their products and wishes concerning the on-line interaction with customers. Only one company of nine shows a deep competence in all these areas.
Another problem regarding telecommunication in the region is the lack of the Internet-infrastructure. The connections are too slow and instable.
In the next section we want to present TELMA by summarising the courses and showing the structure of the curriculum. We also will describe the underlying method.
4. „TELMA - Frauen in TELekommunikation und InforMAtik” There are several aims of the project. We want to avoid the barriers put up for women in regard to computers and computing, and to encourage them to use computers professionally and furthermore to make computer use an essential part of their work. We want to encourage these women to develop new ideas and innovations in the region and establish their own companies in the area of computer science. Figure 5 shows some scenarios for women returners we tried to define around TELMA.
TELMA
• Basics and specialisation• Project and group work• Work in companies• Personal development and
general qualifications• English
12 months
Full-time employement
Part-time employement
Part-time employement with
coaching and post-education
6 months
Unemployement
Unemployement
Foundation of own company
Figure 5. Scenarios for women returners around TELMA. TELMA was originally planned for 18 months. This was cut down to 12 months because of financial reasons. This reduction was made possible through outsourcing some of the specialisation fields to the end of TELMA as post-education and through reducing management and economy courses, as well as the contents of other courses like English and general qualifications. The edp courses are left as they were planned originally. Due to our empirical studies in the region (see Section 3) there is a lack of people combining computer knowledge with economics know-how. That is why TELMA was planned to include not only technical knowledge but also economics and management courses, business and technical English, general qualifications for team and office work (companies use the term ‘allrounder’ to stress these qualifications). TELMA must give these women qualifications required if they want to become a manager. There are a lot of unemployed women in the region applying for an office job. TELMA aims
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to avoid bringing more women with this kind of qualification to the market place. That is why TELMA offers courses to make these women highly qualified in a specialisation field and in managing people and work. The specialisation fields within TELMA are: • system administration • system maintenance • network management • telecommunication technology • information technology • edp consulting • edp training
After one year we offer a coaching program for trainees in the fields related to computer science, quality assurance, production management, marketing, sales and graphical design with computers. These are planned to be held during the employment of the women which must be limited during the coaching time to 30 hours a week. Coaching includes to have contact with these women, give them information about the regional possibilities for further education, help them during this time and also offer some courses as far as it is possible and necessary.
4.1 Contents of TELMA TELMA consists of eight modules containing several courses listed below.
NAME OF THE MODULE Shortcut Courses included in the module COMPUTER SCIENCE BASICS EDV Introduction to edp PC Introduction to computers (HW and SW) DB Databases and database management systems NET Introduction to networks TELECOMMUNICATION INT The Internet APP Software applications for communication and
the Internet COMPUTER USE IN COMPANIES DOS Microsoft DOS 6.2TM WIN Microsoft Windows 3.1TM WfW Microsoft Windows 3.11TM W95 Microsoft Windows 95TM NT Microsoft Windows NT 4.0TM (server and
client) OFF Microsoft Office 95TM INTRODUCTION TO ECONOMICS AND MANAGEMENT
VWPOL Political economics and economy policy
RECHT Law of taxation, labour legislation, social law KR Cost accounting, calculations ORG Economics, organisation, management PM Project management MARK Marketing and sales (basics) PR Public relations and publicity SYSTEM ADMINISTRATION ADM System administration and maintenance,
network management TEL Telecommunication and information
technology CONSULTING AND TRAINING BER Edp consulting
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TRAIN Edp training GENERAL QUALIFICATIONS D German KOMM Communication TEAM Teamwork, team management, team
development LERN Learning methods, mind training/mapping,
information gathering and analysis WORK Work organisation, time management STS Stress handling SB Throughput and assertion strategies and
exercises BODY Bodywork, movement ART Art BO Vocational information ENGLISH E English
Table 2. Modules and courses of TELMA.
In the following we describe briefly the contents of the courses and show the main issues we aimed at.
COMPUTER SCIENCE BASICS EDV The trainees learn the basic concepts in computer science. This is at the
same time is an introduction to the terms used in this field. The module has been structured inductively, that means it starts with concrete things like registers, hardware, software, codes, etc. and ends with general principles in computer science.
PC This is an introduction to the computer systems, like mainframes and personal computers. The components of the PCs are described theoretically and trainees also have the possibility to work with hardware components manually. The aim of this course is to understand the functionality of the peripheral units of a PC and interfaces between those components. Compatibility and upgrade issues regarding PC components are stressed explicitly.
DB DB is an introduction to databases and database management systems. It contains relational data models, database services and applications. Trainees learn the methods for database design and different types of data structures. Some database languages and systems are shown in detail.
NET NET includes the basics of network systems and telecommunication. Trainees learn about the state of the art and the practical use of telecommunication services in a real office environment. They experience the advantages and possibilities enabled by telecommunication and networks.
TELECOMMUNICATION
INT The Internet and its structure are the main topics of this course. Error handling and several applications for accessing data in the Internet will
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be trained in terms of concrete project work3 in small groups. Trainees learn which tool can be used for which purposes.
APP In APP we try to make trainees familiar with applications for the Internet. Trainees get concrete problems to be solved by using the Internet for data acquisition. Applications like Web-browsers, Web-server, Mail-server, Ftp-server, Telnet, Archie, Email, News, Chat software, HTML-Editors, and CSCW-Groupware applications will be trained precisely.
COMPUTER USE IN COMPANIES
Though DOS, WIN and WfW are rather old systems, we included them in this module because the most companies in the region still do use these systems. Besides, that we emphasise the use of new computer systems and applications like Microsoft Windows 95TM, Microsoft Windows NTTM and Microsoft Office 95TM to give the trainees the ability to judge when to use a tool for which specific purposes and then of course to use them professionally.
INTRODUCTION TO ECONOMICS AND MANAGEMENT This module is developed to refresh the knowledge trainees acquired in business schools. We are not able to offer the whole knowledge in economics and management within TELMA because of time limits. Our main purpose is to provide our trainees with political and economic understanding of their environment because these issues influence their work enormously. Marketing, public relations, project management and organisation of work and people are not only shown theoretically but trained in the scope of project work as well.
SYSTEM ADMINISTRATION According to our investigations in the region system administration, consulting and training are the most demanded specialisation fields. We aim to offer the most essential knowledge and skills for administering computer systems (only Microsoft operating systems) and local and wide-area networks. Administration includes also the design and maintenance of company data, user accounts and other electronic resources.
CONSULTING AND TRAINING „Margetson (1991) points to two distinctly different ways in which expertise can be conceptualised. The first is in terms of content: „… to be an expert is to know a lot of content; it is to have ‘covered’ much in one’s learning; typically, one has a great deal of propositional knowledge, ‘knowledge that …’.” He proposes an alternative view of expertise: „… an ability to make sound judgements as to what is problematic about a situation, to identify the most important problems, and to know how to go about solving or at least ameliorating them.”” (Booth et al., 1997). Within this module we aim at providing our trainees with propositional knowledge integrating ‘knowing that’ with ‘knowing how’.
GENERAL QUALIFICATIONS
3 See for project and group work Section 4.4.
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Within this module we mainly aim at balancing TELMA by promoting the personal development of the trainees. We do not intend to provide them only with the facts and knowledge expected from a computer and telecommunication expert. We combine courses with contents of communication, teamwork, time and resource management with courses for personal development like learning methods, mind training and mapping, information gathering and analysis, stress handling, throughput and assertion strategies, bodywork, movement, and art. Gerda Siann (1997) discusses in her paper the factors influencing the participation of women in computing. She shows the most recent HESA (Higher Education Statistics Agency) figures in Engineering and Technology: „While women are only 14% of those majoring in it alone, they form 45% of those combining it with Biological Sciences as a secondary subject and 51% of these combining it with Creative Arts and Design as a secondary subject. This indicates that, as with computing, studying science and engineering in combination with other disciplines is more attractive to women than studying them on their own.” (Siann, 1997, p.116).
ENGLISH English is required by all companies and is a must in the fields of computer science and telecommunication. We plan to subscribe computer magazines (in German and in English) in order to read texts about progresses in computer systems and sciences. Since Austria has joined the EU (1995) and due to changes in market place, becoming more and more international is a very important issue for companies in the region. Obviously, English is the language to communicate, orally and written.
The temporal structure of the courses are shown in the following figure (see Figure 6). Some modules like GENERAL QUALIFICATIONS and ENGLISH last 12 months, whereas other modules are held as blocks. Beside the eight modules a continuous project work accompanies TELMA (for details see Section 4.4).
PROJECT WORK
E
N
G
L
I
S
H
G
E
N
E
R
A
L
Q
U
A
L
I
F
I
C
A
T
I
O
N
S
Computer
Science Basics
Further qualification (post-education) and coaching.
Telecommunication
Computer Use in
Companies
System
Administration
Consulting
and
Training
Introduction
to
Economics
and
Management
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Figure 6. Modules and temporal structure of TELMA.
Only ¼ of all vocational education offers in Austria is consumed by women. There are several handicaps for women: temporal, financial, psychological and emotional. Unemployed women with small children and female returners suffer at most from these handicaps. That is why it is very important to consider these issues in designing a curriculum. Even if all handicaps are considered the effort expected from these women is still very high. Trainees must not only be willing to change their life styles and schedules within the family, they must also be engaged and make some commitments from the beginning. We considered this re-orientation and adaptation requirements in the curriculum and defined three steps in the time structure of TELMA. Thereby we tried to set up a time schedule similar to a full-time job. We start with 30 course units per week which take 50 minutes each. After 11 weeks we increase this number to 34, and again after 12 weeks we reach 38 units per week. In total we have 35 weeks (1194 units) for modules and project work, and 12 weeks (420 units) for training on company sites.
4.2 Teaching methods in TELMA We tried not to treat the women returners as ‘special cases’. Though we tried to consider their social situation and build the contents and methods in TELMA upon their skills and knowledge. Our teaching interventions are mainly based on experiences of the one author with unemployed women in the region, and on teaching experiences in computer science of the second author.
The main methodical approach of TELMA is project and group work partly moderated and continuously supported by our trainers. On the one hand, group work is a very important and a necessary skill in the workplace. On the other hand, „cooperation and communication have been identified as a key learning strategy for female computer science students” (Svensson, 1996). TELMA consists of one large project that is to be carried out by small or large groups depending on current activities. The project work encourages working in groups and offers additional possibilities to exercise real work situations like to present work results to others, to make decisions within workgroups, to articulate ones own opinion within a group, to chair or moderate meetings, and so on. We wanted to „move from a traditional chalk-and-talk environment to one that is more interactive and student-centred” (Nightingale et al., 1997, p.156).
Additionally, our teaching methods are based on following principles: • Practice-oriented. Highly practice oriented, not only contextually, but
methodically as well. On the one hand we achieve this through project work, and on the other hand through work in regional companies.
• Group-, cooperation- and communication-oriented. The whole atmosphere in TELMA will play a major role in motivating the trainees and in involving them in the entire learning process. To achieve better and more effective results in education trainees must have confidence in trainers. Women usually are well-trained as all-round persons and in communication with colleagues and customers, in organisation of work and people. We want to bring these issues in foreground.
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• Well-established and subject-oriented. A high-grade education with well-established deeper look into subjects and fields of specialisation. We prioritised the subjects and reduced the topics in order to avoid to be contextually superficial.
• Built upon the experiences and interests of the trainees. Our intention is not to demonstrate the knowledge and skill lacks of women, especially regarding (computer) technology, but to discover their abilities and strengths in various areas and to build upon them new skills (in our case this is technological know-how like becoming specialists regarding Microsoft’s products).
• Flexible and individual at the same time. We want to create a free space for participatory shaping of the curriculum and the learning process in it by offering/letting enough space for the development of individual skills. But all trainees must improve their so called general qualifications like working in a team, management and development of teams, applying (self-) learning methods, mind training and mapping, handling with information overflow (gathering, structuring, analysing, and use of information), organising work and managing time, etc. They have to be familiar with situations in which they will criticise others/their colleagues’ work, and of course in which they also will be criticised by others.
• Enabling identification with female computer scientists. Our trainers will be female and we will invite only women for additional lectures. Although it is not always very easy in German, we try to use gender neutral language in our lectures and handbooks.
• Counselling. We offer to our trainees continuously contextual, pedagogical and social consulting as an integrated part of TELMA.
• Comprehensive modules integrated within current occupational situation in the region. TELMA stresses the current occupational and educational situation of women in the region, and prepares these women for employment by showing them possibilities to change their work environments or even create their own ones. The political and economic situation of the region are also taught in a very concrete manner. Trainees must understand the nature of work they do, and furthermore its economical, social and political consequences in order to be able to develop their own strategies in the future and to enhance their abilities to be able to survive in the market place. How to combine family with a demanding job is of course a major topic in TELMA.
For knowledge transfer we included different methods into TELMA: • Workshops to discuss real problems instead of creating an artificial lab
environment, to exchange information between trainers and trainees, to reduce resistance against new (mostly male dominated) technologies like the usage, installation and administration of computers.
• Learning by doing, self-managed learning groups, and tutoring groups. Trainees must learn to organise their work during investigations, analysis and experiments under support of tutors. They have to learn how to deal with a current problem. Originally in the 18 month version of TELMA we planned to use a multimedia application to organise and coach the self-learning phases. This application based on LotusNotesTM supports communication and co-ordination over long distances independently from time and place. Through replication it enables remote update
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of contents at the trainees’ home computers. Using such an application requires computer equipment and connection for telecommunication also on the trainees’ sites. Unfortunately we had to remove these computer supported self-learning phases from TELMA, because the costs calculated for the technical equipment were found to be too high by the funding institution.
In introducing self-learning via telecommunication we had two goals. First, we knew that there are too many new things to learn for the trainees, especially computer usage, which could be additionally exercised at home. Second, by using telecommunication on a daily basis trainees become very familiar with varying possibilities of computer and connection errors as long as they install and configure their modem and their own (home) computers. It is a pity that we cannot raise up the learn success in TELMA by applying this type of tele-learning.
• Practical work in regional companies during TELMA, and excursions to companies. Trainees get to know real work environments and experience within real work settings. The contacts to the companies can be used later as employment alternatives for the trainees. To create contact to various regional companies is hard work, and is supposed to be done also by the trainers and trainees of TELMA.
• Bodywork and art are thought to encourage the trainees to explore their skills and creativity, also to improve their capability in problem solving.
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4.3 Project and group work As mentioned above, project work builds up the major education form of TELMA. The project is designed systematically and interdisciplinary, is restricted to a predefined time period, is complex, dynamic, and new. Project work is supposed to be carried out by subgroups, approximately between 6 and 8 trainees. It consists of three parts (see Figure 7).
PRODUCTS AND CATALOGUES EXPERIENCES
1! Organising and managing project-
oriented teamwork
1! Data retrieval on the Internet
2! Installing a (Web-)wired computer
2! Connecting a computer to the Web
12! Participation in world-wide English
and German mailing lists
6! Creation of private and shared
Web-pages
13! Creation, organisation,
maintenance, and moderation of
mailing lists
14! Participation in FAQ lists and news
groups in computer science
3! Investigation of HW, SW and network
requirements of regional companies,
and use of computers in daily work 4! Installing new operating systems and
applications in regional companies
5! Setup a network environment in
regional companies
8! Introducing Internet-connection in
regional campanies
SPECIALISATION AND IN-DEPTH STUDIES
Services in telecommunication and edpRESULT Figure 7. Project work in TELMA.
PRODUCTS AND CATALOGUES Trainees create four catalogues consisting of methods and guidelines on organising and managing project-oriented teamwork, on data retrieval on the Internet, on installing a (Web-)wired computer and on connecting a computer to the Web.
EXPERIENCES Not only writing about the methods and tools, but also experimenting with different services on the Web is planned in order to offer to the trainees opportunities to exercise and to learn by doing. There are four areas within this class: a) creation of private and shared Web-pages,
b) participation in world-wide English and German mailing lists, c) creation, organisation, maintenance, and moderation of mailing lists,
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d) participation in Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) lists and news groups in the area of computer science.
SPECIALISATION AND IN-DEPTH STUDIES
Doing four in-depth studies trainees get a detailed view of using new technology in ordinary (office) work. First, they investigate HW, SW and network requirements of regional companies and use of computers in daily work. After analysing the data, the results of surveys and interviews will be summarised in a catalogue called edp-requirements of companies in Waldviertel. All data will be offered in the Web. The whole formatting and layout work will be done by trainees as well. The set-up of the Web-server and the maintenance of the Web-pages are also part of the training.
In this part of the project work trainees will have contact with regional companies and furthermore they will offer them different services like installing new operating systems and applications, set-up a network environment and introducing Internet-connection.
Regionally integrated project work has many advantages. On the one hand the trainees will have a real setting to exercise. On the other hand companies will get to know the trainees who may be employed after finishing TELMA.
The end product of the project work will be another catalogue containing a large number of services in telecommunication and edp based on the data created by investigations in the region. All catalogues can and will be published in the Web, and trainees can use these documents as a reference, as an artefact representing their experiences and knowledge in the field.
5. Situation at the end of the project We cannot start with TELMA as scheduled in 1998 because the funding organisation (AMS) responsible for the region had and still has major financial problems. It had to cancel all projects planned to start in 1998. After reducing the original length of TELMA from 18 to 12 months, we moved all topics we removed from the original version of TELMA to the post-education and coaching phase which we offer for trainees after finishing TELMA. We had to reduce the requirements on hardware and software. Therefore we removed the self-learning phases from the curriculum. AMS promised that we can start with TELMA in 1999, and we hope that we can find additional organisations for funding. There are still some aspects we have not prepared for TELMA like examination strategies and certification, review or feedback mechanisms for trainers and other staff, choice and training of trainers, planning the details of courses and project work, generation of the learning material and handbooks, first contacts with regional companies regarding project work on company sites, preparation of the rooms where TELMA will take place, and installing as well as configuring the technical environment. We planned to work on these issues in the preparation phase of TELMA that we wanted to start immediately if TELMA could be financed. We want to measure the success of TELMA first with the active involvement and interest of the trainees, second with the number of employment of the trainees at the
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end of TELMA. We want to review the curriculum to improve its success and to determine the fields in which contextual and methodical changes are necessary. Dynamically changing and fast increasing interests and needs on (technical) service industries in the region, especially in the fields edp and telecommunication, influence qualification requirements of the companies regarding new personnel. This means on the one hand tough competition in the region, on the other hand new chances and job opportunities for women. Since 10 years there is an emerging development in the regional market place, namely TINGs (in English telematic-oriented innovative non-basic new establishments) that are small organisations full of innovations and with a great potential to expand (Baum et al., 1997). TINGs also need new personnel with sophisticated knowledge and skills in edp and telecommunication.
We had to deal with a lot of political and regional hindrances and both hidden and articulated obstacles and problems raised during the development of TELMA and afterwards, because of women (that is us) offering a curriculum for other women (that is the group of unemployed women) within a male-dominated area like computer sciences and telecommunication. During our work we contacted a lot of actors in regional politics and economics, representatives of some institutions and some government officials. In all cases where a decision or promise could be made the persons we talked to were male. Even though during the meetings they all were co-operative and friendly, we always had to deal with a great uncertainty in their obligations. The easiness to keep an overview of everything in a regional space also has some side effects like hosting dense connections between institutions like regional initiatives, non-profit associations, companies and politicians. Very few persons are often the key actors of more than one such institution and play of course a major role in decision making regarding public needs and interests. Here we see disadvantages for women. If the available resources are restricted, we - the women - have no chance to be considered as consumers of these resources. They - the men - are not interested to share the resources with us or other women in the region.
In the region there is still an enormous resistance against female presence both in education in technical fields and in employment, especially in better-paid jobs. Although the most interview partners said that they are willing to employ women in their companies, the uncertainty and scepticism regarding qualifications women can bring in technical fields was and is very high. Computer sciences and telecommunication are still considered to be a male domain. In addition to these attitudes, unemployed women are politically not supported in Austria. There are still no facilities to educate them in non-traditional fields, especially in regional area.
6. Conclusion It is almost impossible to arrange a curriculum without considering the existing circumstances, e.g. the varying expectations of the financing organisation, political and power structures in the region, the situation of the women, their life styles and possibilities to do something different for the first time, the competition with other education organisations that are interested to get the possibility to offer the courses by themselves, etc.
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We tried to change the traditional teaching methods, in some way we succeeded, at least at a design and planning stage. We had to remove the computer based self-learning phases from TELMA, we had to reduce the contents of some modules, we had to postpone some contents. But we managed to develop a curriculum with elements of problem-based, project- and practice-oriented, group-, co-operation- and communication-centred learning built upon the experiences and interests of women trainees which makes it flexible and individual at the same time.
The personnel manager of a leading Swedish information technology company said in an interview (Svensson, 1996, p.1) “it is a matter of survival. We must have a larger recruitment base, and we need to bring in the female personality and female competence into the management of the company.” We hope that regional companies in Lower Austria can share this statement in the very near future because our efforts in educating women is not enough to ensure them well-paid management jobs or jobs for specialists and experts in the region. We know that we have to cooperate with them.
Bernhard Schneider, one of the regional experts we interviewed, suggested to focus on one topic in Waldviertel, namely on ‘telematics’ (a mixture of computer science and telecommunication). With a focussed strategy it may be possible to get regional and national attention for necessary investments and infrastructure in the region and hopefully new job opportunities. We think that TELMA can play a major role to prepare unemployed women of the region for these jobs and be a leading education facility, contextually and methodically.
7. References Arbeitsmarktservice (AMS) Niederösterreich (NÖ) Landesgeschäftsstelle (LGS) (1996), Bericht über die Wirtschafts- und Arbeitsmarktlage, Vienna. Arbeitsmarktservice (AMS) Niederösterreich (NÖ) (1997), Wichtige Arbeitsmarktdaten. Baum, Josef, Holzinger, Elisabeth and Bernhard Schneider (1997), Qualifikationsbedarf - Handlungsempfehlungen Waldviertel, ÖIR Studie im Auftrag des Arbeitsmarktservice Niederösterreich, Landesgeschäftsstelle.
Booth, Shirley, Bayati, Zahra and Jenny Petersson (as of December 1997), Getting a Grasp on Computer Science and Engineering: The Reception and Learning Effects of a Project-related Course in the First Term, http://www.dtek.chalmers.se/Dpp/Publikationer/grasp.html.
Johannes Kepler Universität Linz (1995), Überlebenszeichen. Initiativen zwischen Hoffnung und Resignation im nördlichen Waldviertel, Endbericht (Final Report) einer Untersuchung von Studierenden der Soziologie, Sozial- und Wirtschaftswissenschaftliche Fakultät, Institut für Soziologie, Abteilung für Soziologische Theorie, Bildungssoziologie und Alltagsforschung, Leiter: Univ.-Doz. Dr. Josef Gunz, Linz.
Nightingale, Wendy, Halkett, Andrew and Kevin Hammond (1997), „Involve: Inclusive Teaching in First-Year Computer Science Course”, in Women in Computing, eds. Rachel Lander and Alison Adam, Exeter, England: intellect, pp.154-159.
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ÖIR - Österreichisches Institut für Raumplanung (1994), Regionales Entwicklungsprogramm für das nördliche Niederösterreich, Vienna. Schremmer, Christof and Cornelia Karajasits (1992), „Szenarien zur Ost-Grenzöffnung und deren Auswirkungen auf die österreichischen Ost-Grenzen”, in Schriften zur Regionalpolitik und Raumplanung, Bundeskanzleramt, Abteilung IV/4-Raumplanung und Regionalpolitik, Vienna. Siann, Gerda (1997), „We Can, We Don’t Want to: Factors Influencing Women’s Participation in Computing”, in Women in Computing, eds. Rachel Lander and Alison Adam, Exeter, England: intellect, pp.113-121.
Svensson, Bertil (as of November 1996), Reforming a Computer Science and Engineering Degree Programme: Operative Goals and Learning-related Strategies, http://www.dtek.chalmers.se/Dpp/Publikationer/ reform.html. Weber, Martha and Hilda Tellioğlu (1997), Entwicklung eines Lehrganges für Frauen im Waldviertel (EDV, Telematik, Telekommunikation), 1., 2., and Final Report, Vienna: Verein AlFa.
