Early motherhood as a precious experience, when mothers learn new hard and soft skills, which are also so important in the world of work. MOM places the spotlight on the abilities, expertise and soft skills that woman use naturally during maternity and which can be transferred efficiently to a professional working life. This innovative training programme transforms parenting skills acquired in informal settings, giving them certified recognition, under the European model “ECVET – European Credit System for Vocational Education and Training”. The end objective is to promote the work of women, especially mothers, thereby contributing, on a broader sphere, towards lowering female unemployment in Europe. Designed to reach as many women as possible across Europe, the tools that come with MOM are free and easy to use, whatever the user’s social or educational background. These tools consist of a programme of classroom teaching on demand; two MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses, designed for a broad usership), one for the mothers and the other for the trainers; and an online learning community for discussion, interaction and the sharing information and resources.

MOM is coordinated by Piano C, funded within the European Commission’s Erasmus+ Programme, developed with five other countries in a public-private partnership, involving Bulgaria, Greece, Norway, Spain and UK, with Fondazione Politecnico di Milano as the Italian partner.
The initiative was inspired by maam – Maternity as a Master – the method invented by Riccarda Zezza – which is shared with the project’s partners to kindle a new training and empowerment project dedicated to unemployed women and mothers.
MOM is expected to reach at least 1,200 unemployed mothers within 2020, offering them free access to the online resources, which are available in five languages.