The Business Foundation for Education hosted the kick-off meeting of the Gender+, which took place in Sofia on 14-15 January 2019. The 2-year Erasmus+ initiative is implemented by the partnership lead by the Aspire-igen (UK), Business Foundation for Education (Bulgaria), CIAPE (Italy), CSI (Cyprus), Learnmera (Finland) and LUNG (Slovenia).
The project looks to:
- develop governance and benchmarking tools for use by VET professionals in order to understand and improve their current approach to gender inclusion;
- tackle underrepresentation of minority gender groups in VET, in particular for certain courses which continue to split down traditional gender lines;
- develop a complementary ‘top down’ approach which allows VET institutions to fully understand how different gender identities fit into their services, and so develop approaches which are fully inclusive to all.
The following intellectual outputs will be produced:
- Gender+ Charter which will set out the minimum requirements an organisation needs to conform to in order to consider its provisions gender positive. This will be achieved through desk and field research into current best practices and emergent trends across Europe.
- Interactive digital benchmarking tool which VET practitioners will be able to use to assess their current services and then track their improvement. This will be achieved through incentivised guidance and support which will highlight how VET organisations can evidence and improve provisions to meet the Charter’s minimum requirements. Each organisation’s score against the Charter will form a ‘Gender Footprint’, with those organisations scoring highly awarded a Gender+ quality mark.
- Skills profile and resources for the development of a Gender Champion role. Through this the project will demonstrate the value for VET organisations in dedicating permanent time and resource to gender issues.
For more current information, follow the Gender+ Facebook page
This project is funded with the support of the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union. Project No: 2018-1-UK01-KA202-048039. This communication reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.
