On December 7, 2022 EU4Skills conducted the offline forum “Building gender equality in vocational education” to present results of the activities in this area, share best practices and announce further steps. The forum became the first national level event to highlight promotion of gender equality in VET education, which was conducted face-to-face after the beginning of the war.
Ensuring gender equality in vocational education is one of the of the priority tasks of EU4Skills.
EU4Skills experts presented the results of a series of training sessions on the development of gender equality culture. More than 150 representatives of VET sector participated in 7 training sessions
Also, the organizers presented the steps and results of the pilot gender self-audit conducted by Chernivtsi VET school.
The “Road map for the promotion of gender equality in the VET system” was presented and discussed as an example for the development of strategies and plans to promote gender equality in the field of VET education which might be now used by regions of Ukraine.
The road map was developed by EU4Skills experts in close cooperation with the Ministry of Education and Science (MoES) and then was proposed for public discussions to collect feedback.
The roadmap addresses the following issues:
1. Creation of internal organizational mechanisms for combating gender discrimination.
2. Increasing the level of gender literacy of employees and their ability to use mechanisms to counter gender discrimination;
3. Overcoming gender stereotypes;
4. Creation of a gender-sensitive educational environment, including a physical one.
At the end of the forum a new educational online course “Gender audit in VET schools” was announced. The courses currently under development and will be implemented in the upcoming year.