Equality of Opportunity in Education and Training - Leonardo da Vinci Project - Germany

Leonardo DA VINCI Project - Federal Institute for Vocational Training Research in Germany (Bundesinstitut für Berufsbildung - BIBB)

The project is an EU-wide project  to address new occupational structures and skills that can provide women with new opportunities.

With technological change and the new forms of work organisation and industrial processes that accompany it, more emphasis is being placed on flexibility and new skills. It is the rationale of the Leonardo Da Vinci project that this opening of new occupational fields can also provide new opportunities for women if innovative approaches become integrated into education and training programmes for women. The coordinating institute in Germany is the Federal Institute for Vocational Training Research in Germany

The German national project consists of several aspects:

1. Establishment of a data bank on new occupation profiles, evaluation studies, grey literature, experts in the field, and information about projects and programmes of educational training institutions.
2. Evaluation studies of selected projects of NOW I; Horizon, IRIS, etc.
3. Establishment of criteria for the evaluation of training programmes; reciprocal support in evaluation of members programmes.
4. A regular exchange of professional experience
5. Joint use of external experts.
6. On a national level, four thematic working group sessions per year (in Germany).

Germany will focuses on the following areas:

1. New information technologies: multimedia, teleworking, desktop publishing, computer and program counselling, repair and servicing of personal computers;
2. New home and community proximity services Women in intermediary management;
3. Occupations in new fields and professions with ecological and environmental dimensions, for instance, in rural tourism or other professions focused on the combination of tourism, free-time activities and environmental issues.

Examples of projects between 1995-1997:

1. Continued training module for those responsible for equal employment opportunities in business, continued training, researchers, union experts in continued training and business consultants.
2. Development of Quality Standards for Total Quality Management Systems in the Field of Continuing Vocational Training for Women. The definition of quality standards applying to training rarely takes into account specific elements relevant to women. This project proposes to identify and develop quality standards which take this aspect into account. A regional network will be established that consists of representatives of the social partners, companies, training bodies and research institutes which will contribute to the development of quality standards in the field of continuing vocational training for women (total quality management systems) and to their implementation.
3. Improving the opportunities of female employees in the housekeeping services of large communities. This project proposes to make available to employees in the housekeeping services a qualification in the field of quality management for large communities which will take national, regional and institutional particularities into account and make the women who work in this sector more employable.
4. Joint Teleworking System - Innovative Forms of Work for Medium-Sized Companies. The project aims to offset the consequences of parental leave for employees and companies by means of a regional training network of SMEs. The aim is to develop a concept for a self-supporting industrial network system, which will facilitate the replacement of people taking parental leave and help maintain the qualifications of those concerned at the workplace and externally during parental leave.