A training for digital competence development for parents was held in ,,P.R. Slaveykov”, village of Dzhulyunitsa

On September 23, 2022, under DREAM ROAD project, training of parents from different age group was held in ,,P.R. Slaveykov” village. Dzhulyunitsa. The topic of the meeting was how to work with Microsoft Excel. Twenty parents were attended and were introduced to the functions of Microsoft Excel. Each of them had a task to make a monthly income and expense breakdown. The goal was for the participants to learn how to make a family financial budget (FINANCIAL LITERACY). Atanas Atanasov and Valeri Angelov, guided the participants by explaining what an excel table is used for and how the program can calculate the necessary values we are looking for. Atanas and Valeri shared – The basic environment for working in Microsoft Excel is a workbook – a file that can contain one or multiple worksheets and charts.

The worksheet is like a ledger and contains rows and columns. The columns extend vertically and are identified by letters called column names. The column names are located at the top of the worksheet. The rows extend horizontally and are identified by numbers called row numbers. These are located on the left side of the worksheet shared by Atanas. Mr. Angelov, an expert at CEDT AMALIPE, also told the audience that with Microsoft Excel it is possible to easily and quickly fill in information such as : numbers, text and calculation fields, which can then be changed, deleted or replaced with another. Information can be organised into several worksheets in one workbook and then named in a convenient way so that the information needed can be found quickly and easily.

Parents were able to make a monthly financial budget. Participants said it was the first time someone explained to them how to work with such a program. Moreover, none of the attendees had made a family financial budget for income and expenses before, emphasizing the need for periodic meetings and trainings like this to increase parents’ digital competences, because the world is becoming more and more modern and parents need to respond to the challenges of this world. In the past two years, the world has gone through a global pandemic that has changed people’s perspectives and taught us many new things. Children have gone from in-person learning, to distance learning. At this point in time, many parents were unable to support their children precisely because of a lack of skills in a digital environment. There was no way for parents to help their children use social apps or platforms, such as Microsoft Teams, Zoom.us, etc. because they did not have the necessary knowledge about these apps. It is because of this that parents said they would like to have periodic trainings to increase parents’ digital competencies so they can help their children.

The trainings are implemented within the project Danube REgion for improved Access and eMpowerment of ROmA Development