The European Union - Education and Training Programmes

The Employment NOW Initiative is set within the Employment Community Initiative, which is a Community initiative that aims to integrate specific target groups into the labour market. The NOW project focuses on women, in particular, on:

• improving participation by women in the labour market,
• on reducing unemployment among women, and
• on improving the position of those already in the work force.

It is the largest programme in the EU for testing and implementing new ideas for women’s training and employment. Its scope of action include:

• Developing new training methodologies for women previously excluded from training in order to identify new niches in the job market and to pursue new business ideas.
• Specific targeted intervention to benefit women, including those considered long-term unemployed linked social and psychological support with training, work experience and job search.
• Helping to integrate the principle of Equal Opportunities into the planning, implementation and evaluation of all policies and programmes relating to employment.
• Training and retraining in order to maintain competitiveness or be eligible for new or higher-qualified work, such as future-oriented sectors, such as multi-media, telematics and environmental protection. Some projects develop new ways to assess a person’s skills and competences, particularly those gained outside formal education and work situations, for example while raising a family or doing voluntary work.

Phase I 1995-1999

The Programme is administered by the Directorate-General of Education, Community Vocational Training Action Programme (implemented by Cedefop) under the European Commission. It was established by Council Decision 94/819/EC of 6 December 1994 establishing an action programme for the implementation of a European Community vocational training policy. The programme, initially adopted for a period of five years (1995-1999) aimed to implement a Community policy on vocational training to support the development of policies and action in the Member States and transnational partnerships which involve different organisations with an interest in training. Equality of opportunity between men and women is included under the common framework of objective, i.e.

"promoting equality of opportunity as regards access for men and women to vocational training and their effective participation therein, in particular so as to open up new areas of work to them and encourage them to return to work after a career break" (article 1 (k))

As such, a number of projects were carried out in support of measures to promote equal opportunities, as exemplified under the "Equal opportunities in vocational training - Compendium of projects 1995, '96, '97"  report published by the Leonardo da Vinci programme.

Phase II 2000-2006

The second phase of the programme aims to support the transnational and individual Member State initiatives in the area of vocational training, in particular, in the context of lifelong learning. Additionally, participation to the programme is now officially open to participants from the three EFTA/EEA countries (Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway) as well as to the associated countries of Central and Eastern Europe (Bulgaria, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Czech Republic, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia).

In particular, the Council Decision of 26 April 1999 establishing the second phase of the Community vocational training action programme ‘Leonardo da Vinci’ states that in implementing the objectives of the programme, attention should be paid to, amongst others, equality of opportunity between women and men. The Council Decision (see art. 2) sets the aims of the programme as:

• improving the skills and competences of people, especially young people, in initial vocational training at all levels;
• improving the quality of, and access to, continuing vocational training and the life-long acquisition of skills and competences with a view to increasing and developing adaptability, particularly in order to consolidate technological and organisational change.
• promoting and reinforcing the contribution of vocational training to the process of innovation, with a view to improving competitiveness and entrepreneurship, also in view of new employment possibilities; special attention shall be paid in this respect to fostering cooperation between vocational training institutions, including universities, and undertakings, particularly SMEs.

With regards to the gender mainstreaming approach in the second phase of the programme, the Commission has issued guidelines for the Leonardo da Vinci project in which it suggests that gender be mainstreamed at all stages of the project cycle. In particular, the guidelines advise that promoters of projects should:

• consider carefully the equal opportunities dimension of the project;
• formulate equal opportunities objectives for the project;
• identify means of monitoring progress;
• specify methods of seeking to achieve the objectives;
• report on progress on achieving equal opportunities objectives in reports; and,
• use equal opportunities as an internal evaluation criterion.