Briefing N te - EUROPA

on Gender Equalityand Technical and

Vocational Training (TVET)

Briefing N te

EUROPEAN COMMISSION

BRIEFING NOTE

ON GENDER EQUALITY AND

TECHNICAL AND

VOCATIONAL TRAINING (TVET)

EC Gender Help Desk, 2006

The series of Gender Briefing Notes1 is designed to help EC officialsworking in development cooperation to easily identify and addressgender equality issues in specific sectors and thematic areas. TheBriefing Notes also build upon material contained in the Toolkit onMainstreaming Gender Equality in EC Development Cooperation (2004)which has been widely distributed.

1Draft Briefing Notes have been prepared on gender equality and the following themes: Trade,

Decentralisation and Public Administration Reform, Human Rights, Vocational Education and Training andGender Budgeting in Programme Based Approaches to Aid. The Notes have been prepared by the ECGender Help Desk run by the International Training Centre of the ILO. Jane Hailé authored the first three,whilst Nathalie Holvoet wrote the one on Gender Budgeting. Benedetta Magri was responsible for overalleditorial coordination.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction...................................................................................5

International Agreements and Declarations on Equality of

Access to Skills Training ................................................................8

Factors affecting women’s access

to employment and training...........................................................8

Towards a gender-sensitive TVET system ....................................10

How can EC staff address these issues at policy,

programme and project level: Key questions ...............................12

Sample indicators of a gender-sensitive TVET System: .................15

Mini- glossary of key concepts .....................................................17

Other Resources...........................................................................18

Examples and good practices .......................................................19

Briefing Note on on Gender Equality andTechnical and Vocational Training (TVET)

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

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INTRODUCTION

In many partner countries the EC supports the strengthening of the Technical andVocational Training System, in order to meet new demands for skilled humanresources.

For example in MEDA countries who have entered into Free Trade Agreements a needis usually identified to strengthen and re-orient the TVET system overall in terms of thenew demands being made upon the economy because of trade liberalization,privatisation and the new occupations technologies and standards being introduced.

In TACIS countries the EC has supported similar programmes in the context of thetransition from a centrally planned to a market economy, which results in demand fornew skills.

Successful TVET system reforms need to address current gender-based inequalities inthe economy, and to ensure that both men and women have equal access to newtechnologies, skills, and opportunities being introduced. This can be better achieved byputting the focus on training for employability, and systematically including a genderperspective. A careful gender analysis of the labour market can prove useful to makeTVET systems more efficient and relevant to the demands for flexibility infast-changing economic scenarios.

Eastern Europe and CIS: Gender dimensions of employability

During the 1990s access to employment drastically deteriorated for men andwomen in all countries in Eastern Europe and CIS. Women were, however, moreaffected by job cuts than men, especially in the early 1990s. (…) Only recentlyhave these trends been reversed, as in most countries men have become morevulnerable to job losses than women. The relative improvement in women'semployability by the late 1990s may reflect an acceleration of structural changes inindustry, where men's jobs are no longer protected as opposed to the initial phaseof this process, which affected feminized light industries or clerical positions. Theimprovement in women’s employability however, reflects also most likely agreater willingness on the part of women to accept worse jobs or jobs for whichthey are overqualified. (…) Many women are increasingly forced to turn topart-time work or other non-standard jobs or employment in the informal sector,which offer little or no social protection. Discrimination is on a rise in a number ofcountries, especially in the private sector. The erosion of the social benefits hasmade it more difficult for them to reconcile full-time employment with familyresponsibilities.

Adapted from UNECE 2005

Many economies are characterized by rigid gender- based occupational segregation(vertical and horizontal) which effectively restricts the occupational choices of womenand men to what are traditionally regarded as appropriate activities for them. Theconcentration of men and women in different types and levels of activity andemployment normally results in a situation such that women are confined to anarrower range of occupations (horizontal segregation) and to lower levels than men(vertical segregation).

Gender-based occupational segregation is a common feature of labour markets at alllevels of development, under all political systems, and in diverse religious, social andcultural settings.2

Its causes are of social, cultural, structural and economic reasons. Socio-culturalnorms and stereotypes regarding men and women, family responsibilities, and worklife interplay with the structure of the education and vocational training systems, andwith the mechanisms regulating the access and permanence in the labour market.


5

INTRODUCTION

2Anker, 2003 p. 3

Gender-based occupational segregation is based upon traditional beliefs or genderstereotypes of appropriate functions for men and women. These beliefs are based onthe core reproductive roles of women and men. Women are traditionally associatedwith the private domestic domain of the family and community, and men with thepublic domain as primary “bread-winners”.

Work in female-dominated occupations (cleaner, salesperson, waitress, secretary,receptionist etc) is related to similar activities women perform in the home as part oftheir traditional “reproductive” or caring role.

Typically for example more women work as nurses rather than as doctors; as primaryschool teachers rather than teaching at secondary or tertiary levels, or acting aseducation supervisors and managers.

Table 1. Stereotypes of women and their effect on occupational segregation

Common stereotyped

characteristics of

women

Effect on

occupational

segregation

Examples of typical

occupations affected

Comments

Positive

Caring Nature

Helps qualify womenfor occupations whereothers are cared for,such as children, the ill,older people

Nurse, doctor, ayah,social worker, teacher,midwife

Often felt to be biological (i.e. sexdifference), because women aremainly responsible for child care inall societies. This is, however, alearned gender-based difference.

Note that occupations that requirecare but also require greaterauthority, such as medical doctor,are often male-dominated.

Skill (and experience)at household-relatedwork

Helps qualify womenfor occupations that arefrequently done in thehome (almost alwaysby women), often asunpaid household work.

Maid, housekeeper,cleaner, cook, waiter,launderer, hairdresser,spinner, sewer, weaver,knitter,tailor/dressmaker

Skills easy to learn (therefore,women’s greater experience beforeentering the labour market shouldnot be very important).

Greater manualdexterity (especiallysmaller, nimble fingers)

Helps qualify womenfor occupations wherefinger dexterity isimportant

Sewer, knitter, spinner,weaver,tailor/dressmaker,typist

Belief is partly based on:

• biological (sex) difference; and

• experience (gender) differencesin house before joining the labourmarket.

• Skill is easy to learn.

• Occupations often similar tothose noted underhousehold-related workactivities.

Other

Greater willingness totake orders

Greater docility andless likelihood ofcomplaining about workor working conditionsLess likelihood ofjoining trade unions

Greater willingness todo monotonous/repetitive work

General characteristicsthat help qualify womenfor occupations andsectors of the economywhere workingconditions are poor,labour laws are notapplied (e.g. informalsector) and work isroutinized.

These generalcharacteristics “qualify”women for many jobsthat are low paid,unskilled, unprotectedand repetitious innature.

These stereotypes have beencombined because they are similarin that all imply a subservientnature. These are archetypallearned (gender-type)characteristics.

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7

INTRODUCTION

Table 1. Stereotypes of women and their effect on occupational segregation

Negative

Disinclination tosupervise others

Helps disqualify womenfor all types ofsupervisory andmanagerialoccupations.

Manager (general;production; trade;catering and lodging),supervisor (clerical;sales; production),government executiveofficer, andadministrator andlegislative official

This is in many ways the oppositeof willingness to take orders. Thisoften affects vertical occupationalsegregation (with lower level jobsfor women).

Less physical(muscular) strength

Helps disqualify womenfor occupationsrequiring heavy liftingand/or physical effort

Construction worker,miner/quarrier, welldriller

There is considerable overlap in thephysical strength of individualwomen and men, which meansthat many women are physicallycapable of doing this work.

Becoming less and less importantin today’s economy.

Source: Examples taken from table 2.1 in Anker, 1998

This gender-based occupational segregation is usually reflected in a gender gap in payand other benefits between men and women, with jobs where women are highlyrepresented being less valued and less remunerated.

Socialization with respect to gender stereotypes takes place in the family and istypically reinforced by the school system, religious beliefs, and the media, and may bereinforced by the letter and/or the application of the law. In the family girls areuniversally most likely to be assigned responsibilities for caring for the house and forfamily members thus establishing very early a division of labour based on theirreproductive roles.

In many countries, at school girls are very often streamed out of scientific or technicalsubjects into arts and humanities which may not be appropriate qualifications for entryinto technical or vocational training. Girls dropping out at secondary level to getmarried is an important additional factor reducing their eligibility to undertaketechnical or vocational education.

Very often training and vocational systems continue to provide training which is in linewith traditional gender stereotypes rather than challenging those stereotypes. Theselection of course content (e.g. male stereotypical skills), the eligibility requirements,and the timing and location of training can all result in unintended discriminationagainst women.

Why should we be concerned about occupational segregation? The level of theindividual gender-based occupational segregation limits and constrains employmentchoice and opportunities. Equal access to employment is limited by gender-basedoccupational segregation with women being most disadvantaged. At a societal levelrigid labour market segregation is believed to limit societies’ capacity to respond to thenew economic opportunities and risks presented by the global economy.

The Agreement on Textiles and Clothing: Potential effects on

gendered employment in Pakistan

Because the system of “purdah” has translated into extreme occupationalsegregation, a disproportionately large share of Pakistan’s female labour force isemployed in stitching/sewing made-ups and garments for export. But sinceJanuary 2005, when the ATC terminated the decades-old quota regime thatregulated international trade in textiles and clothing, the industry has beenrestructuring to cope with the consequences of increased competition on the newlyliberalized global market. Siegmann argues that Pakistan’s competitive position islikely to suffer most in the made-ups/garments segment of the market. If so,women could eventually suffer disproportionate job losses with scant prospects foralternative employment.

By Karin Astrid SIEGMANN

Occupational segregation based on gender stereotypes may result in wastage ofhuman resources if women and men are confined to certain occupations regardless ofnew opportunities opening up, or changes in the requirements for certain types ofskills.

The reform and strengthening of the TVET system provides an important opportunityto try to redress the stereotyping that has already taken place at the level of family andschool by encouraging both men and women into “non-traditional” activities, and byensuring that new types of jobs which become available as a result of larger economicchanges are equally accessible to both men and women.

INTERNATIONAL AGREEMENTS AND

DECLARATIONS ON EQUALITY OF ACCESS TO

SKILLS TRAINING

The Convention on the Elimination of All forms of Discrimination Against Women(CEDAW) under Articles 10 and 11 as elsewhere calls for equality in education, trainingand employment opportunities. The Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action (1995)stresses the need for women’s equal access to education training and employmentparticularly with respect to Strategic Objectives B (Education and training of women)and F (Women and the Economy). ILO Conventions 100, 111, and 142 provide theinternational normative framework and for gender equality with respect to access tovocational training opportunities.

At European level, Council Directive of 9 February 1976 requires Member States totake all necessary measure to ensure the effective implementation of the Principle ofEqual Treatment for Men and Women as Regards Access to Employment, VocationalTraining and Promotion, and Working Conditions (76/207/EEC). In addition,Commission Recommendation of 24 November 1987 on Vocational Training forWomen (87/567/EEC) recommends a set of possible active measures to promotewomen’s access to vocational training. (See list of proposed measures in Annex).

FACTORS AFFECTING WOMEN’S ACCESS

TO EMPLOYMENT AND TRAINING

“Women’s labour force participation has not only increased but come to

dominate labour force growth in many countries. It is therefore essential to

address barriers to women’s skill development as part of any effort to build a

competitive labour force for the future. Women have provided the bulk of new

labour supply in both developed and developing countries over the past two

decades” (ILO Report page 139)

In many societies traditional stereotypes giving priority to women’s activities in theprivate domain ensure that caring activities take priority and education is de-valued.Where girls are educated the humanities are favoured ahead of technical skills trainingfor girls. This may mean that they do not have the formal educational qualifications forentry into TVET.

Women’s need to balance family responsibilities with the need to work result in theiraccepting and therefore over-representation in part-time and temporary, andlow-skilled work, as well as their dominance in home-based or informal work. Womenworking in care or informal economy are usually rather solitary, not organized ingroups and therefore unable to claim their rights to training and employment.

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Conventional TVET systems do not normally reach out to these women nor recognizethe need for women to re-enter the labour force after a period of absence due tochild-birth or to caring for the sick and elderly.

There is a need therefore for innovative non-formal education and skills training whichwould still provide them with valuable and widely accepted credentials.

Difficulty of access to the formal labour market, along with the growth of the servicesector in many countries has meant that for many women entrepreneurship providesan attractive avenue for employment. However small entrepreneurs often fall outsidethe interest of national development agencies or donors as regards provision oftraining which is often biased towards large public or private enterprises rather than tosmall or micro enterprises where women are concentrated.

Pressures to reduce the public sector in many countries have often resulted in abolitionof low-level public sector jobs where women predominate. Very often wages, benefitsand working conditions are less favourable to women in the private sector whereemployers’ profits are the main driving force.

Public sector downsizing contributes to women’s predominance in part-time ortemporary employment which whilst offering a degree of flexibility in terms ofbalancing employment with family responsibilities tends to be poorer qualityemployment in respect of pay and benefits, and also in terms of access to in-firmtraining.

Increased levels of trade and technological progress in some countries have opened upnew opportunities in export processing zones (EPZs) for both men and women thoughoften women are preferred because of persistently lower female wages. Globallywomen provide up to 80% of the labour force in EPZs, though the quality and stabilityof jobs is often poor as foreign investors tend to move to a different location when anopportunity for higher profits presents itself. Usually such jobs provide minimaltraining and therefore do not lead to job openings for women in higher-skilled andhigher-wage positions.

“Recently as the impact of economic reform and the changing nature ofeconomic opportunities become perceptible in many countries, questions arestarting to surface as to the specific impact of globalization and economicreform on women workers. In fact indications reveal that there seems to beboth gains, and persistent challenges. On the one hand globalization seems tohave brought women greater economic opportunities and autonomy, while onthe other hand these work opportunities seem to be marked by poor workingconditions and low wages, which does not really improve women’s status withintheir families and/or societies”3.

A final and important issue on the demand side concerns the actual demand fromemployers for female graduates of the TVET system.

Demand may be inadequate for a variety of reasons. Women are perceived to be lessefficient, too costly (if maternity benefits are good), inappropriate for work in certaintechnical or skills areas. If women perceive that there is little actual demand for theirlabour even after training this does of course serve as an additional discouragement totheir embarking upon technical and vocational training.

Training on its own however sensitively developed will be insufficient to guaranteeprofound change in women’s labour market opportunities.

Affirmative action, equal opportunities legislation and anti-discrimination laws play anessential role in overcoming employer reluctance to provide women with equal accessto training and employment.


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FACTORS AFFECTINGWOMEN IN VET

3“Globalization and Gender: Economic participation of Arab women” Centre of Arab Women for Training

and Research (CAWTAR/UNDP/AGFUND (2001)

TOWARDS A GENDER-SENSITIVE TVET SYSTEM

The TVET system is the arena where supply and demand need to come together and assuch can play a key role in promoting gender equality in labour market. Agender-sensitive TVET system needs to be aware of the existing differences inwomen’s and men’s access to training and employment, and be capable to improve theequity outcomes of education whilst meeting the skills demand.

Whilst meeting the human resource development requirements generated by neweconomic trends towards trade liberalization, or the changes from a centrally plannedto a market economy, the TVET system has an important role to play not only inproducing the skills required by the labour market but also in opening up old and newskills to both men and women.

By promoting the diversification of women and men’s occupational choices, and byequally equipping them with portable, employable skills it can reduce rigidities in thelabour market overall thus enabling it to be more responsive to new opportunities.

Not surprisingly the gender –based occupational segregation noted elsewhere in thelabour market overall is usually present also within the TVET system itself and canresult in the creation of further internal obstacles to women’s access to andparticipation in that system.

Typically there are few women in decision-making positions as supervisors ormanagers in vocational training institutes or training centres. Additionally because ofthe education requirements many of the curriculum designers and trainers are malewhere there are gender gaps in education, particularly in technical and scientificsubjects.

The lack of gender sensitive managers, curriculum developers and trainers (eithermale or female) very often results in a situation whereby curricula, and trainingmaterials reflect the gender stereotypes prevalent in the wider culture as to what skillsand occupations are appropriate to women and men respectively. As a result womenand men are streamed into courses which reflect their traditional roles, which is also acontinuation of the subject streaming they have been subjected to in schools.

Lack of sensitivity to the women’s family obligations, restricted travel, or restrictionson contact with men and non-family members may also result in TVET coursesbecoming beyond the reach of women. Currently it is quite rare that TVET systems andcourses provide for the child-care needs of female trainees.

Other factors with gender implications concern eligibility requirements of women andmen. As girls are often streamed into non-technical subjects at some point in theirschool careers which may damage their chances to pursue technical or vocationalsubjects later in life. Many factors relating to girls family responsibilities (as a child oras a wife) may also mean that girls have too few years of schooling to meet the entryrequirements based purely on formal technical qualifications.

Vocational training needs to be seen as a dynamic opportunity to challenge rather thanto confirm gender-based occupational segregation; vocational training needs to bemore gender friendly in terms of eligibility requirements, in terms of encouragingwomen and men to take up new and non-traditional courses, in terms of ensuringgender-sensitive supervision, and teaching; location, duration and timing of courses;and provision of child -care facilities.

For a variety of reasons women meet numerous obstacles in accessing mainstreamformal vocational, or work-based training. Women’s pre-existing skill base,employment patterns and family responsibilities may be better served by systems thatprovide for the recognition of prior learning or include pre-training in life skills andnon-formal training.

TVET systems should be ready to respond to the diversity of women’s needs foraccessible training by promoting policies and programmes, and effective approaches

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to skills acquisition, in formal and informal settings, adapted to both women and menwho are disadvantaged in the labour market.

A gender sensitive VET system should move beyond employment-only focus to includeelements of empowerment and self-confidence building. It should present differentrole models, widen women’s and girls’ self-perceptions on their professional abilitiesand include non-formal programmes to support the development of women’scooperatives and SMEs, such as community-based training (CBT).

In the absence of positive changes in all of these areas, the good intentions ofproviding vocational training opportunities “without discrimination” so often stated inFinancing Proposals, will not be fulfilled, and consequently the gender gap may well bewidened in terms of provision of training and consequent employment opportunities.

The ILO Community-based training approach (CBT)

The CBT is a gender sensitive methodology that creates opportunities for sustainedeconomic activities, by helping communities to identify and assess local economicopportunities, by designing delivering community-based skills training andproviding post-training services, such as measures to assist communities toorganize themselves into credit and savings groups.

(source: ILO IFP/Skills)


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A GENDER SENSITIVEVET SYSTEM

HOW CAN EC STAFF ADDRESS THESE ISSUES AT

POLICY, PROGRAMME AND PROJECT LEVEL:

KEY QUESTIONS

MACRO level

• What commitments to gender equality of access to TVET have been made by thegovernment? Have CEDAW, ILO C100 or ILO C140 be ratified? Are they translatedinto specific legislation and policies at national level?

• Are comprehensive labour and employment policies in place which reflectcommitment to equal opportunities in TVET and employment, and provide equalbenefits and protection for men and women.

• What other necessary measures are in place to help guarantee the effectiveness ofgender-sensitive TVET systems, e.g. affirmative action, specific programmes toattract women in TVET, investment to modernise TVET programmes in feminisedoccupations, incentives to employers, sensitisation of labour market institutions,credit schemes and accompanying measures to support women’sentrepreneurship?

• What is the rate of primary and secondary education for girls; how does the schoolsystem reinforce gender stereotypes e.g. through streaming girls into arts andhumanities, through portrayal of negative gender stereotypes in materials etc.

• What is the drop-out rate for girls at different levels?

• Has an analysis been done of current female/male employment which providesclear indications of female/male employment by sector and by level? How andwhere are women typically employed; home-based work, small and microenterprises, EPZs, family farms

• Has a similar analysis been done for current female/male unemployment?

• What information is available on women’s and men’s work in the informal sector orin the “care” economy?

• Have women or men been disproportionately affected by new economic reforms?Have projections been made of the female/male employees who have been/will bedisplaced because of economic reforms?

• Has an inventory been made of the new jobs to become available as a result ofeconomic reforms by level/sector?

• How important are gender stereotypes of appropriate female/male occupations indetermining educational and occupational choices for women and men? Aremeasures in place to address these gender stereotypes through media watch dogs,through revision of school curricula and materials.

• Are policy makers, national gender equality institutions, teachers’ unions, tradesunions, employers, women’s organisations, employees involved in dialogueconcerning the strengthening and re-orientation of the TVET system?

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MESO level

• Has an analysis been made of the current capacity of the TVET system in terms ofnumbers of male/female graduates produced in each occupational area?

• Has an analysis been made of the gender balance of management, supervisory andtraining staff in the TVET system? Are they aware/have they been trained in genderequality issues?

• Does the TVET system provide for the existence of equal opportunity committeesor institutions to ensure the effective implementation and monitoring of existingpolicies?

• Are there barriers internal to the TVET system which affect women’s access totraining (timing, duration, inappropriate facilities for mixed groups, lack of childcare facilities, fear of gender-based violence, entry requirements etc.) or women’slower return on their investing in TVET (obsolete equipment or lack of developmentof marketable skills in women-dominated professions)?

• Are there flexible entry requirements which would value experience as well asformal qualifications, and would also provide foundation courses for women andmen who require additional support to meet the eligibility requirements? (e.g.Recognition of Prior Learning)

• Is provision made for non-formal, community-based and lifelong learning, as wellas work-based training all of which are equally accessible by women and men?

• Is there involvement of potential employers, banking and credit institutions,National Women’s Machineries, women’s civil society organisations in trainingprogramme planning, design, evaluation and follow-up at the local level?

• Are there advocacy activities to women and men relative to new economicopportunities, and non-stereotypical occupations available to them?

• Are there advocacy activities to the general public and to employers, particularly inthe private sector relative to the need to respect equal opportunities policies and tosee beyond negative stereotypes of women’s employment?

MICRO level

Attitudes

• Is TVET perceived as inappropriate or inefficient for girls and women, and if so whatare the objections?

• Has a gender analysis been conducted on the different social, cultural, economicreasons for girls and boys’ drop-out rates in secondary and vocational education?

• Is there strong prejudice against women’s wage employment from employees,parents and women themselves which prevents them from taking advantage oftraining opportunities available?

In training access and delivery

• Do curricula in addition to specific vocational knowledge and skills content includeleadership, management and marketing skills; knowledge of equal opportunitieslaws, and regulations, gender equality issues etc?

• Are TVET management and teaching staff sensitised to and trained in genderequality issues both in the context of training and with respect to the larger genderissues in the economy and labour market?

• Do training programmes provide both women and men access to non-traditionaltopics, and also training for both women and men which focuses on course content


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HOW CAN EC STAFFADDRESS THESE ISSUES

which is gender neutral, typically relating to new technologies? Is this emphasisreflected in advertising of courses, and in certain cases in the establishment ofquotas to ensure that a significant number of women participate?

• Does training employ a combination of training approaches which would allowmaximum flexibility and access to both women and men e.g. on-site/on-linetraining; apprenticeship, internships, mentoring)

• Do curricula, teaching materials and teaching methods reinforce negative orconservative gender stereotypes?

• Is support provided for family responsibilities of the trainees (flexi-time, transport,childcare facilities etc)

• Is post-training support provided for women and men (credit and savings schemesetc)?

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SAMPLE INDICATORS OF A GENDER-SENSITIVE

TVET SYSTEM:

Vocational training enrolment rate

Percentage of the adult population enrolled in some kind of vocational training by sexand field of study.

Policies and programmes for women in science and

technology and or in VET

Yes/No response to the availability of such policies and programmes.

Additional qualitative information: key features of the policies and programmes. E.g.

• Female-friendly and child-friendly facilities

• Establishment of quota systems or financial incentives (fee reduction)

• Flexible entry requirements for women and men (mix of formal qualifications andrelevant experience, recognition of prior learning)

• Presence of pre-training skills programmes or post-training follow-up

Women in information and communication technology

(ICT)

Percentage of men and women participating in training relative to new technologies.

Percentage of women in the field of ICT, by industry and level.

Access to computers

Percentage of women and men who have access to a computer at home. by sex andurban/rural.

Internet use

Percentage of women and men who use the Internet on an everyday basis.

National/provincial policies to close the gender gap in ICT

Yes/No response to the availability of such policies and programmes.

Additional qualitative information: key features of the policies and programmes.

National/local programmes to reduce gender

stereotypes in school curricula and textbooks

Yes/No response to the availability of such policies and programmes and to trainwomen in ICT skills. Additional qualitative information: key features of the policies andprogrammes.

Distribution of teachers

Percentage of female and male teachers and principals (and presidents in case ofuniversities) at primary, secondary and tertiary levels.

By level of school and position and branch.


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SAMPLE INDICATORS

Women decision makers in the TVET system

Numbers of women managers and supervisors of TVET institutions as a proportion ofmale managers

Gender budgeting initiatives in the public education and

training sectors

e.g. A gender budgeting initiative could reveal the real efforts made in order to improvewomen’s employability (e.g. in countries with high femal illiteracy, the proportion ofthe expenditure on adult basic education or to modernize female dominated trades).

Lifelong education policy schemes for women

Yes/No response to the availability of such policy schemes for women. Additionalqualitative information: key features of the schemes.

Participation in lifelong education

Percentage of the adult population who participated in lifelong education programmesbeyond their formal education, by sex. It is important to include non-formal lifelongeducation programmes as well (e.g. CBT)

Female students in tertiary education

Percentage and distribution of female students in tertiary enrolment (availability ofpossible teacher role models in TVET institutions)

Indicator of adult illiteracy rate

Percentage of population aged 15 years and above who cannot read or write by sexand rural/urban area (and other key variables such as ethnic group etc when relevant).

(Adapted from UN – ESCAP Gender indicators for the Beijing Plaftorm for Action)

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MINI- GLOSSARY OF KEY CONCEPTS

(in order of appearance in the text)

Gender stereotypes: The beliefs current in society about the role, function andstatus of women and men. These beliefs are based on the reproductive rolesof women and men. Women are traditionally associated with the privatedomestic domain of the family and community, and men with the publicdomain as “bread-winners”.

Gender based occupational segregation (vertical and horizontal): theconcentration of men and women in different types and levels of activity andemployment, with women normally being confined to a narrower range ofoccupations (horizontal) and to lower levels (vertical) than men.Gender-based occupational segregation is based upon traditional genderstereotypes.

Care/reproductive economy: that part of human activity that is concerned withthe process of caring for the present and future labour force and the humanpopulation as a whole. Women are over-represented in this sector of theeconomy.

Productive economy: This is the part of the economy concerned with productionof goods and services for income or subsistence. It is this type of work, whichis mainly recognised and valued by societies and which, if paid, is included innational statistics. Both men and women are engaged in production but oftennot equally rewarded.

Feminization: the over-representation of women in a category such as workers inthe informal sector, the poor, or in an occupation, such as primary schoolteachers.

Informal economy: By definition, the informal economy is understood to beoutside the world of reg u l a r, stable, and protected employment and oflegally regulated enterprises (ILO, Women and Men in the Informal Economy:A Statistical Picture, Geneva, 2002). In large parts of the world work isbecoming increasingly informalised, both in important global export sectors aswell as domestic production. The expansion in flexible, precarious andinsecure forms of work is also associated with an increase in femaleparticipation in paid work. Vocational training systems designed for formalemployment are often inaccessible to informal workers and particularlywomen who are often found in “invisible”, home-based, work.

Employability is a broad concept that encompasses the portable skills, knowledgeand competencies that enhance a worker's ability to secure and retain a job,progress within and between jobs, and cope with changing technology andlabour market conditions. The different gender roles traditionally assigned towomen and men in a given society have an impact on their employability,which often happens to be at women’s disadvantage.


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MINI- GLOSSARY

OTHER RESOURCES

Gender and Jobs: Sex segregation of occupations in the world, Richard AnkerILO/Geneva 1998

Women and Work , EC/DG Employment and Social Affairs 1997

World Employment Report 1998-99, ILO/Geneva 1998

ILO C142 Human Resources Development Convention, 1975http://www.ilo.org/ilolex/cgi-lex/convde.pl?C142

Human Resources Development Recommendation R195- includes a very rich databaseof Equal Opportunity and TVET legislation and initiatives at national and internationallevelshttp://www.logos-net.net/ilo/195_base/

C159 Vocational Rehabilitation and Employment (Disabled Persons) Convention, 1983http://www.ilo.org/ilolex/cgi-lex/convde.pl?C159

Council Directive of 9 February 1976 on the Implementation of the Principle of EqualTreatment for Men and Women as Regards Access to Employment, Vocational Trainingand Promotion, and Working Conditions (76/207/EEC)

Commission Recommendation of 24 November 1987 on Vocational Training forWomen (87/567/EEC)

Skills Development in Developing Countries by Peter Bennethttp://www.ilo.org/public/english/employment/strat/publ/etp43.htm#4.2

European Training Foundationhttp://www.etf.europa.eu

Women’s employability in Eastern Europe and cis countries: Progress and challenges ,UNECE, 2004http://www.unece.org/oes/gender/documents/gender.2004.BP3.pdf?OpenAgent&DS=ENERGY/GE.1/2001/1&Lang=E

The Agreement on Textiles and Clothing: Potential effects on gendered

employment in Pakistan, Karin Astrid SIEGMANN in International Labour

Review, Vol 44 (2005), no. 4

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EXAMPLES AND GOOD PRACTICES

List of active measures proposed by EC

Recommendation of 24 November 1987 on

Vocational Training for Women (87/567/EEC)

A list of active measures to promote women’s access to VET:

a) integrate training for women within a broader process of cooperation between allthe parties concerned : the education authorities and oganizations, school andvocational guidance, the two sides of industry, the training organizations, thelenders of capital, the central and/or regional and/or local authorities, equalopportunities organizations, undertakings, women's groups or associations;

b) staff the guidance, training and placement services with persons qualified to dealwith the specific problems of women (e.g. equal opportunities counsellors) andto take measures to increase the awareness of instructors;

c) reorganize the school, university and vocational guidance services in such a waythat they seek out rather than wait to be approached by the people concerned;

d) encourage the participation of women and girls in training courses by providingmore decentralized and more widely distributed education and training facilities;

e) develop awareness and information measures so as to offer women and thosearound them images of women engaged in non-traditional activities, particularlythose related to occupations of the future;

f) encourage the participation of girls in higher education, particularly in technicaland technological fields, by:

• making provision within the grants system for ways of compensating for thedouble sexual and social handicap borne by girls from underprivilegedbackgrounds,

• adopting measures enabling girls to benefit on an equal footing from theprogrammes set up in the context of the links to be developed betweenuniversities and industry (in particular the COMETT programme) and frominter-university agreements promoting the mobility of students (particularlythe ERASMUS programme),

• making efforts to steer girls towards key areas of new technology;

g) encourage greater participation by girls in the various initial vocational trainingsystems outside the education system, especially apprenticeships, other thanthose teaching certain 'female' occupations and adapt or, where appropriate,abolish types of training for women which do not provide real occupational skillsor lead girls into overcrowded occupations;

h) encourage girls and women to set up their own businesses or cooperatives byintroducing special training and further training schemes particularly designed toprovide:

• training in financial management,

• information on access to back-up and financial facilities;

i) develop measures designed to promote the participation of women in continuoustraining entailing:

• campaigns to provide information and promote awareness of the potentialoffered by such training,


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EXAMPLES

• measures to encourage women to follow such training courses, for exampleby adapting the conditions of training courses (e.g. timetables, duration andforms of training) to the specific problems of women and, where appropriate,by setting target figures, to be reviewed, particularly for sectors andoccupations where women are under represented;

j) provide specific courses for certain categories of women, particularlyunderprivileged women and women returning to work after an interruption,particularly in the confidence-building, awareness or pre-training phases;

k) open up all types of training (paticularly those intended for unemployed people)to women wishing to return to work and encourage the two sides of industry todevelop 'reintegration' projects providing training likely to enable the persons inquestion to re-enter the firm at the level at which they left;

l) enable the spouses of self-employed workers who help with that self-employedactivity to take advantage of training opportunities on the same terms asself-employed workers;

m) introduce support measures such as the provision of flexible childmindingarrangements and the establishment of the appropriate social infrastructures soas to enable mothers to take part in training schemes, the introduction offinancial incentives or the payment of allowances during training;

n) recognize skills acquired in running a household and looking after a family(exemption for certain course elements, etc);

o) monitor the progress of women having taken part in training schemes,particularly in occupations where women are underrepresented.

Examples of EC-funded projects supporting

gender-sensitive TVET systems

Yemen - Strengthening the priority areas of vocational

training

(EU Meda 1,75 Meuro 2000 – 2005 Implem. IFOA)

The project supports the overall reform of Yemen’s Vocational Education and Trainingsystem through the establishment of three vocational training centres in three priorityfields: Women empowerment, Oil & Gas, Hotel & Tourism. The major objectives of theproject are to increase employment opportunities, especially for women, throughacquisition of skills most required by the labour market and the involvement of theprivate sector in VET system. Tasks include: assessment of VET needs within the threesectors; identification of the need for new training centres and strengthening ofexisting centres; revision and development of curricula to include market researchresults; elaboration and delivery of a Train the Trainers programme.

Turkey - Support to women entrepreneurs

(1,3 Meuro Ongoing)

The overall objective is to promote entrepreneurship especially among Turkish womenplaying an active part in setting up and/or running small family business. Thisprogramme will therefore not only be supporting the formal economy of Turkey, butalso development opportunities for Turkish women and enhancing their role in society.

Specifically, the programme’s objective is to encourage, through the provision oftraining and consultancy, small family businesses in which women play a key role aswell as women willing to start a business. Five training Centres will be established forthis purpose aimed primarily at women (2/3 of the total). The aim is to train 1 500women across the five Centres. The centres will be located in Ankara, Bursa, Çorum,Denizli, Içel.

Beneficiary: TESK – The Confederation of Turkish Craftsmen and TradesmenContractor: IFOA

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Documents

Briefing N te - EUROPA