GENDER +

Gender+ is a two-year Erasmus+ KA2 project which will develop governance and benchmarking tools to improve gender inclusivity within VET. Many courses are split along traditional gender lines and minority gender groups are underrepresented. Therefore, our project will produce a series of related resources: a Gender+ Charter will set out the minimum requirements an organisation should conform to in order to consider its provisions gender positive. Practitioners will assess their services and track improvement, scoring themselves against the Charter in order to form a ‘Gender Footprint’. Organisations that score highly will then be awarded a Gender+ Quality Mark. A skills profile and resources for the development of a Gender Champion role will also be created.

IO1: Gender Positive Charter: Research will be carried out into best practices in gender positive provisions across European VET, with their common features and approaches analysed. This will then feed into a series of minimum requirements which a gender positive institution needs to follow. These requirements will be presented in a ‘Gender Positive Charter’

IO2: Benchmark Tool: The findings from the research in IO1 will also be used as the foundation for the development of an interactive assessment tool for VET schools to benchmark their current gender policies. It will highlight areas for improvement and how these can be addressed (e.g. what institutional changes, training etc. is needed). The results from this tool will also map across to the IO1 Charter, showing an institution the extent to which they meet the minimum requirements

IO3: Gender Champion Skills Profile and Resources: Appointing a Gender Champion will be a key feature of a gender positive provision. This output will carry out field research with equality and diversity leads, HR professionals, VET school leaders etc. to identify what the needs and profile of such a role would be; information which will be presented in a formal skills profile. This research will also inform other resources (guides, service-set up tools etc.) to help VET schools establish such a role. These resources will be presented on the project website alongside the Benchmark Tool and Charter

1. aspire-igen, UK: https://www.aspire-igen.com/
2. Learnmera Oy, Finland: http://learnmera.com/
3. LUNG (People’s University of Nova Gorica), Slovenia:https://www.lung.si/

4. Business Foundation for Education (BFE), Bulgaria: www.fbo.bg
5. Center for Social Innovation – CSI, Cyprus: www.csicy.com
6. CIAPE (Italian Centre for Permanent Learning), Italy:https://www.ciape.it/ciape/en/italian-permanent-learning-centre/