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Up-skilling itineraries for women as new cultural promoters to enhance territorial heritage

2019-1-IT02-KA204-0631762019Strategic Partnerships for adult educationfinalizedGood practice
Countries: IT|CY|FR|DE|ES · Grant: €287,557.5
Gender equality / equal opportunitiesInclusion - equityCultural heritage/European Year of Cultural Heritage

Project summary

Gender inequality is one of the biggest problems our societies have to deal with. The EU reaffirmed its strong commitment to gender equality, social justice, non-discrimination and human rights with the EU’s Gender Action Plan 2016-2020. As a matter of fact, the Lisbon Treaty explicitly refers to ‘equality between women and men’ as a constitutive common principle of member states. However, in all Member States the employment rates of women are lower than those for men. As highlighted by EIGE (European Institute for Gender Equality) the job market is constantly increasing requirements on competencies across all sectors. Over 6 million women and 2 million men without upper secondary education across the EU have never been employed. The different levels of education affect employment opportunities and income variations. The data strongly highlight the Equality between men and women issue. It is needed to keep in mind three types of disadvantages women face: lower hourly earnings; working fewer hours in paid jobs; and lower employment rates (for example when interrupting a career to take care of children or relatives). The Pro-Women project wants to promote equal opportunities and social-labour inclusion of the low-skilled and unemployed women by providing intervention tools for training and empowerment. Partners will undertake with target group a participative learning path to strengthen their competences and acquire new ones (including the key competences), with the final aim of supporting their employability in the Tourism sector. this sector must increasingly be approached with a view to enhancing the cultural and environmental heritage, namely the legacy which includes tangible culture (monuments, works of art), intangible culture (traditions, language, knowledge) and natural heritage (landscapes, biodiversity, etc.). The project challenge is to operate in sustainable tourism. The 6 EU entities from Italy, Cyprus, Germany, Spain, and France, involved in this project, will achieve the project objectives by carrying out - A Study on one hand to deeply analyse the legal and social framework at national and EU level related to the gender discrimination in employment and the pay gap and on the other, analyse the characteristics of territories and employment opportunities in the context of sustainable tourism development; - The elaboration of a Learning Course package aimed to train a new dynamic professional profile, able to promote the territorial realities from different points of view: historical and cultural, spiritual, natural and gastronomic. The profile will be named the “Promoter of cultural and environmental itineraries for the enhancement of the territories”; - The testing of the learning course that will enable women in training to produce the Atlas of the areas to be enhanced. - The elaboration of a Handbook addressed to professionals working with women. The Learning Course will be undertaken involving at least 90 low-skilled / low-qualified and unemployed women and/or housewives who want to re-enter the labour market (both EU citizens and migrants/refugees). The partnership will produce the following 4 Intellectual Outputs, all of them aimed at women’s social and labour inclusion: o O1: Study for “An integrated reading of the territories” o O2: Learning Course Package for enhancing women's competences and promoting their employability opportunities in the tourism field o O3: Atlas for the enhancement of cultural and natural heritage of specific areas of 5 European countries o O4: Handbook addressed to educators and trainers working with women in vulnerable situation. By undertaking the project activities, a total of 90 entities/individuals working in the project fields will be contacted during the Study, for deeply analysing the equality issue in employment and the features of each territory and a total; moreover, 60 relevant stakeholders will be involved in the networking sessions to be developed during the learning activity. At least 300 people will participate in final conferences organised in each partner country. At least 500 relevant stakeholders (policy-makers, local administrations, relevant service providers, representatives of associations, entities, NGOs related to the project field, trainers, etc.) as well as 100 professionals working in partner organizations will be directly involved in the dissemination and exploitation activities within the project and beyond the project for sharing and activities and results. More than 20,000 stakeholders and other relevant actors will benefit all over Europe.

Objectives

The “Pro-WOMEN: Up-skilling itineraries for women as new cultural promoters to enhance territorial heritage” project, was aimed to promote equal opportunities, social-labour inclusion and empowerment of the women (particularly those with low qualifications and/or unemployed or in precarious jobs) by providing intervention tools for training and empowerment. Learning is the key for women to defend themselves against discrimination and exclusion by improving/strengthening their social skills, their ability to act in the context and to value common goods, having confidence in their professional abilities, being aware of their rights. In line with this approach, the Pro-Women project aimed to: contribute to the fight against discrimination of women; consider education and training as indispensable elements for the promotion of social cohesion and empowerment processes, both of individuals and territorial communities. The specific objectives were: - To boost cultural growth, enhancement of cultural heritage of local communities - To enhance innovative methodological approaches aimed at women's empowerment - To facilitate the access of women to training, job and entrepreneurship through empowerment.

Background

Gender inequality is one of the biggest problems facing our societies. Despite the EU strong commitment to gender equality, social justice, non-discrimination and human rights (EU Gender Action Plan 2016-2020; EU's new Action Plan on Gender Equality and Women's Empowerment in External Action 2021-2025 - GAP III), in all member states women's employment rates are lower than men's. More than 6 million women and 2 million men with no upper secondary education have never been employed. Women face 3 types of disadvantages: lower hourly earnings; fewer hours of paid work; lower employment rates (e.g. when interrupting a career to take care of children or relatives). Women also represent a large pool of under-exploited entrepreneurial potential in the EU (-30% of entrepreneurs). Self-employment can be the key to social and labour market inclusion of vulnerable groups if specific training is provided. Given that tourism "is one of the fastest growing industries in the world and a major source of income for many countries", it was identified by the partners as a sector that could meet the training and employability needs of women. The challenge of the project was to operate in sustainable tourism and cultural heritage protection.

Final report summary

Gender inequality is one of the biggest problems our societies have to deal with. The EU reaffirmed its strong commitment to gender equality, social justice, non-discrimination and human rights with the EU’s Gender Action Plan 2016-2020. As a matter of fact, the Lisbon Treaty explicitly refers to ‘equality between women and men’ as a constitutive common principle of member states. However, in all Member States the employment rates of women are lower than those for men. As highlighted by EIGE (European Institute for Gender Equality) the job market is constantly increasing requirements on competencies across all sectors. Over 6 million women and 2 million men without upper secondary education across the EU have never been employed. The different levels of education affect employment opportunities and income variations. The data strongly highlight the Equality between men and women issue. It is needed to keep in mind three types of disadvantages women face: lower hourly earnings; working fewer hours in paid jobs; and lower employment rates (for example when interrupting a career to take care of children or relatives). The Pro-Women project wants to promote equal opportunities and social-labour inclusion of the low-skilled and unemployed women by providing intervention tools for training and empowerment. Partners will undertake with target group a participative learning path to strengthen their competences and acquire new ones (including the key competences), with the final aim of supporting their employability in the Tourism sector. this sector must increasingly be approached with a view to enhancing the cultural and environmental heritage, namely the legacy which includes tangible culture (monuments, works of art), intangible culture (traditions, language, knowledge) and natural heritage (landscapes, biodiversity, etc.). The project challenge is to operate in sustainable tourism. The 6 EU entities from Italy, Cyprus, Germany, Spain, and France, involved in this project, will achieve the project objectives by carrying out - A Study on one hand to deeply analyse the legal and social framework at national and EU level related to the gender discrimination in employment and the pay gap and on the other, analyse the characteristics of territories and employment opportunities in the context of sustainable tourism development; - The elaboration of a Learning Course package aimed to train a new dynamic professional profile, able to promote the territorial realities from different points of view: historical and cultural, spiritual, natural and gastronomic. The profile will be named the “Promoter of cultural and environmental itineraries for the enhancement of the territories”; - The testing of the learning course that will enable women in training to produce the Atlas of the areas to be enhanced. - The elaboration of a Handbook addressed to professionals working with women. The Learning Course will be undertaken involving at least 90 low-skilled / low-qualified and unemployed women and/or housewives who want to re-enter the labour market (both EU citizens and migrants/refugees). The partnership will produce the following 4 Intellectual Outputs, all of them aimed at women’s social and labour inclusion: o O1: Study for “An integrated reading of the territories” o O2: Learning Course Package for enhancing women's competences and promoting their employability opportunities in the tourism field o O3: Atlas for the enhancement of cultural and natural heritage of specific areas of 5 European countries o O4: Handbook addressed to educators and trainers working with women in vulnerable situation. By undertaking the project activities, a total of 90 entities/individuals working in the project fields will be contacted during the Study, for deeply analysing the equality issue in employment and the features of each territory and a total; moreover, 60 relevant stakeholders will be involved in the networking sessions to be developed during the learning activity. At least 300 people will participate in final conferences organised in each partner country. At least 500 relevant stakeholders (policy-makers, local administrations, relevant service providers, representatives of associations, entities, NGOs related to the project field, trainers, etc.) as well as 100 professionals working in partner organizations will be directly involved in the dissemination and exploitation activities within the project and beyond the project for sharing and activities and results. More than 20,000 stakeholders and other relevant actors will benefit all over Europe.

Project partners (6)