Daughters of Tomorrow: Empowering Women with Digital Literacy

With technology advancing by leaps and bounds, the digital literacy gap has grown bigger for many in our community.

For women from lower-income backgrounds without digital knowledge, their quest for better job opportunities and financial stability becomes much harder.

To bridge this gap, Daughters of Tomorrow (DoT), a non-profit organisation dedicated to helping women to be job-ready, applied for the Digital for Life Fund in 2022 to implement their IT Literacy Programme.

DoT Partnerships and Operations Manager Brendan Seah shared that the programme has grown and saw a jump in sign-ups after receiving support from the Digital for Life team to improve the programme.

“The Digital for Life team advised us to offer elective courses and helped us make the courses more relevant. They offered their experience with suggestions to improve the programme.”

DoT’s IT Literacy Programme was eventually expanded to an 11-week course that included on-site training and collaborations with corporate partners, conducted by a dedicated team of volunteer trainers.

Walking the Talk and Leading by Example

Job Readiness Programme Coordinator, Nur Ardillah was one of the many women that the programme had helped to be employed.

“After I completed the programme with DoT, I reached out to one of the managers and asked if DoT was hiring. And found that I was able to qualify for the position of Programme Executive that was available because of the skills I have acquired from the IT Literacy programme."

As a beneficiary-turned-executive, she related to the issues the beneficiaries faced in their learning journeys and was able to help some of them through it.

Learning Digital Skills for both Workplace and Home

Another IT Literacy Programme beneficiary, Rajashwari, originally signed up to improve her digital skills so that she would qualify for a management position in her retail job.

But during her lessons, she soon discovered another benefit for being proficient in Microsoft, Google Suites and Zoom: she was able to help her children with their remote learning and online homework.

“Now when my kids ask me for help with their homework, I know how to answer their questions and I am proud that I am able to help them.” shared Rajashwari.

When asked about her favourite class, she talked about her love for Canva. Her interest in the user-friendly graphic design tool continued even outside the classroom, as she dived into it straight after she got home from the lesson.

Volunteers Learn by Giving Back to Participants

In addition to the women benefiting from this programme, volunteers from corporate partner, BNP Paribas have also enjoyed the opportunity to participate and give back to society. Lead volunteer Prashant credited the enriching experience to Digital for Life Fund’s support.

“I think the backbone of any programme being solidly supported translates directly to the beneficiaries' confidence levels. I feel the programme had a tremendous uplift as a result of this team-up between Digital for Life and DoT.”

With the support of the Digital for Life Fund, DoT has expanded its IT Literacy Programme to more heartland locations, benefiting many women who now have the digital skills to improve their lives and the lives of their families.