Ensuring gender-balance in upskilling and reskilling

The EU has a long history of promoting gender balance, including for upskilling and reskilling. Key initiatives include the Gender Equality Strategy 2020-2025: A Union of Equality¹, the European Skills Agenda2, the 2016 Council Recommendation on Upskilling Pathways3, as well as the recent Council Recommendation on Individual Learning Accounts4. These instruments all highlight the importance of ensuring gender balance as an essential element of quality and effective education and training systems. The current European Year of Skills5, moreover, represents an opportunity to further highlight the importance of ensuring gender balance in up- and reskilling, including through better cooperation among key stakeholders. 

Stakeholders working together under the Pact for Skills can greatly contribute to ensure that lifelong learning opportunities are accessible to all. Strong cooperation and partnerships between sectoral organisations, social partners, Public Employment Services, and businesses, for example, can lead to increased motivation to ensure gender balance in up- and reskilling as a practical tool for increasing participation of all and, in particular, the underrepresented gender in a given sector in training and easing access to the labour market. This can play a crucial role both to boost the attractiveness of upskilling and reskilling measures, especially in traditionally gender-typed trainings and courses, and to tackle barriers hat can affect participation, ensuring that no one is left behind. Increased uptake of upskilling and reskilling opportunities, including a more balanced gender participation, is vital to support economic growth and social cohesion, as well as to ensure that everyone can successfully navigate the digital and green transitions and benefit from new employment opportunities. 

During this peer-learning activity, participants will have the opportunity to hear about how ensuring gender balance supports upskilling and reskilling, to find out about gender diversity projects and practices, and to share their own experiences with regards to challenges and success factors contributing towards gender balance, as well as ideas on how to work together to guarantee that lifelong learning is accessible to all.