Migrants experience higher unemployment and under-employed rates in EU countries than their native citizens (OECD 2013). An especially vulnerable group is migrant women who are subjects of a double-disadvantage as migrants and as women. As lack of employment is one key challenge for them, entrepreneurship has the potential to provide employment. Within this scenario, bolstering business creation among migrant women, is a key strategy to improve the labour market integration through self-employment of migrant women, and help them to reach their full potential while fostering the creation of added value, innovation, productivity and integration in their host countries. The Kaleidoscope project addressed this challenge by developing entrepreneurship training which focuses especially on soft skills needed in entrepreneurship and that is particularly tailored to the needs of migrant women. The Kaleidoscope training has been developed in a consortium of four partners coming from countries with a different history and situation of migration, Finland, France, Italy and the UK, and with complementary expertise in entrepreneurship, migration, vulnerable groups and women, creativity and formal education.The Kaleidoscope entrepreneurship training is delivered face-to-face and on the social learning platform as blended learning using a mix of methods from basic theory of the topic, workshops, action learning, e-learning to personal coaching. The non-formal nature of training and the flexibility in its delivery ensures that learners’ cultural needs and learning styles are being addressed and that the educational background does not limit the participation in training.The target groups of training are:1)Migrant women residing in the EU2)Stakeholders: Migrant trainers and workers, unemployment centres and workers, start-up incubators, social workers, municipalities, policy makers etc. who can organise the training.The Kaleidoscope training is formed of six modules:1) Action Learning and Coaching2) Daily Problem Solving, networking, communication3) Creativity and fun for developing an entrepreneurial mindset + Business modelling as a game4) Entrepreneurship education for migrant women, resilience and entrepreneurship5) Intercultural barriers to access market, learning from the hosting culture and how to adapt it6) Progress and ReflectionThe modules are complemented by additional resources. A competence validation at the beginning of training helps migrant women to detect the competence areas which need most attention and to tailor individual training paths. At the end of the training the competence validation helps to see the progress. In addition, a handbook for self-learning supports individual learning and provides complementary material to training.The development of the training and competence validation benefits from the research and the Kaleidoscope Competence Framework for entrepreneurial support of migrant women developed during the first phase of the project.All the training material are freely available on the Kaleidoscope Social Learning Platform which, besides providing the training materials online, enables discussions, learning and group work through a forum and through cloud tools. Migrant women have the possibility to upload their personal mini CVs on the platform too.The project reports and the handbook are also freely available in the results section of the project website https://www.kaleidoscopeproject.eu/about/results/ in the respective language section.During the project, the Kaleidoscope training was piloted in all partner countries with 54 migrant women of 29 nationalities and four continents: 13 in the UK, 18 in France, 9 in Italy, and 14 in Finland. In addition, 12 of them took part in an international pilot training week. The feedback from the participating women was similar despite their differences. Hence the training seems to be suitable to any national, cultural and educational background. The women felt that the training was highly useful, appropriate and relevant, empowering and increasing their self-belief, and that it helped them during their first steps towards entrepreneurship and in understanding their potential. All the participants showed an increase in mastering entrepreneurial soft skills. The training and the handbook were evaluated positively also by the stakeholders.Based on the highly positive feedback from the target groups and stakeholders, it can be concluded that the Kaleidoscope training addresses well to the needs of all migrant. The training material is the first of its kind, entrepreneurship training specially targeted for migrant women. As the material is also freely available online for all migrant women and for all trainers working with migrants to implement the training, in the future, more migrant women are expected to receive help in their business creation and employment through Entrepreneurship.

Migrant women continue to face difficulties and challenges in their professional careers. Highly skilled migrant women tend to face a double disadvantage as a result of discrimination towards women and particularly those from a migrant background especially in non traditional sectors such as in Science, Engineering, Arts and Technology (STEAM). As a migrant, further barriers of underemployment and deskilling occurs. Migrants are often in positions they are overqualified for. It has been found that migrants tend to possess higher educational attainment compared with their native-born peers in many different countries (Eurostat, 2018). Yet, they do not seem to be accepted for positions which match their competencies.Women who are looking for employment, or are employed, in the STEAM sector can face further challenges in their professional journey, especially as a highly skilled migrant and as a minority in a male dominated profession. Highly skilled migrant women face challenges and barriers in areas such as the lack of recognition of their degrees. In 2017, 59% of men and 41% women were scientists and engineers in the EU (Eurostat, 2019). Women made up a minority of all ICT specialists working in the European Union, at 17.2% (Eurostat, 2018).The MentoraSTEAM project aims to develop highly skilled migrant women’s self-efficacy, confidence and soft skills in the STEAM sector in order to boost employability. There is a need to tackle this issue transnationally as women are underrepresented and are subjected to a gender gap globally (World Economic Forum, 2020). Furthermore, migrant women tend to have lower self-efficacy, especially in the STEAM sector (Tellhed et al, 2016; Gjersoe, 2018). Research has shown that initiatives to boost women’s confidence are important as it can encourage them to pursue a career in STEAM or stay in the field (Perez-Felkner, 2018). Therefore, there is a need for the partner countries of this project to work collaboratively to tackle the issues migrant women in STEAM face and to inform stakeholders of the challenges this target group currently face. The methodology of the current project will focus on the development of the MentoraSTEAM Policy Framework Guide (IO1), MentoraSTEAM Employability Booster (IO2) and MentoraSTEAM Circles™ (IO3).The MentoraSTEAM Policy Framework Guide will compile a comprehensive guide which will include case studies, existing initiatives (on a European and national scale) and focus group findings from all partner countries. This will be beneficial for further understanding of the disadvantages women experience in STEAM across a range of stakeholders from employers to Chambers of Commerce amongst others.As a result of the findings from the guide, the MentoraSTEAM Employability Booster training will be developed taking into consideration what has been found in the research conducted in the first output. 4 modules will be delivered by the partnership and two pilot testing phases will be carried out to boost the employability in highly skilled migrant women in STEAM. Migrant women will be invited to attend the MentoraSTEAM Circles™. They will be provided with peer mentoring sessions facilitated by an experienced trainer. This will further develop their skills and encourage them to set actions points for them to achieve while increasing their self-efficacy.A total of 8 multiplier events will take place in the project lifetime. After the finalisation of IO1, all partners will carry out an event to disseminate the findings of IO1. After the finalisation of all outputs, another multiplier event will take place in each partner country. The last 4 multiplier events will celebrate the achievements of the MentoraSTEAM project. It will inspire and empower women in STEAM and motivate stakeholders to take action in order to engage more this target group in their organisations. Through this project, the partnership can have an international effect on the development of skills for women in STEAM backgrounds and contribute to their empowerment. There will be a long-term effect of the project as it will improve social connectivity and build relationships between women in STEAM. Furthermore, it will provide women in STEAM with hope and skills for a more equal future.Main results:- Empowerment and training of migrant women with a STEAM background. There will be a development of new skills and development of existing skills. Thus, improving employability. - Building awareness of the inequalities and challenges of migrant women with STEAM background. Building connections between women who experience this inequality to empower one another and continue to work together outside of the project to spread the word. - Improve knowledge and understanding of the challenges this target group currently face amongst employers, employment agencies, the third sector, Chambers of Commerce and VET centres amongst others.