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COMMISSION RECOMMENDATION

of 24 November 1987

on vocational training for women

(87/567/EEC)

THE COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES,

Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Economic Community and the second indent of Article 155 thereof,

Whereas Article 4 of Directive 76/207/EEC of 9 February 1976 on the implementation of the principle of equal treatment for men and women as regards access to employment, vocational training and promotion, and working conditions (1) lays down that the Member States shall ensure application of the principle of equal treatment with regard to access to all types and to all levels of vocational training and retraining;

Whereas the Commission communication to the Council transmitted on 20 December 1985, on 'Equal Opportunities for Women - Medium-Term Community Programme 1986 to 1990', included education and training as one of the seven fields of action defined therein and stated that the Commission will propose Community guidelines on vocational training for women;

Whereas the Second Council Resolution of 24 July 1986 on the promotion of equal opportunities for women (2) supported the broad outlines of the Commission communication referred to above and supported the programme's objectives of realizing in practice equal opportunities in economic, social and cultural life;

Whereas the Second Council Resolution also called on Member States to take appropriate action on the basis of, inter alia, the Commission communication;

Whereas Council Decision 86/365/EEC of 24 July 1986 adopting the programme on cooperation between universities and enterprises regarding training in the field of technology (COMETT) (3), Council Decision 87/327/EEC of 15 June 1987 adopting the European Action Scheme for the Mobility of Univrsity Students (ERASMUS) (4), the Resolution of the Council and the Ministers for Education meeting within the Council of 12 July 1982 concerning measures to be taken to improve the preparation of young people for work and to facilitate their transition from education to working life (5), the Resolution of the Council and the Ministers for Education meeting within the Council of 3 June 1985, containing an action programme an equal opportunities for girls and boys in education (6), the proposals for a Council decision adopting an action programme for the training and preparation of young people for adult and working life (7), and the Commission Communication on adult training in firms (8), have all underlined the importance to be attached to equal opportunities;

Whereas the European Parliament has on several occasions emphasized the need for a comprehensive large-scale policy in the area of equal opportunities for women and has urged the promotion of adequate vocational training for women;

Whereas the need for well-targeted vocational training measures has been heightened by the fact that the structural crisis on the labour market and the introduction of the new technologies have seriously affected women's employment prospects and whereas the demographic trend and the economic and social changes call for the skills of all workers to be more closely attuned to requirements;

Whereas this situation has led to the development in the Member States of various initiatives designed to promote more appropriate skills for women but whereas the measures involved have often remained limited; whereas certain measures have also been undertaken at Community level and whereas the European Social Fund contributes to the financing of vocational training operations;

Whereas it is therefore important to establish Community guidelines for carrying out a number of specific comprehensive actions in a variety of fields in order to develop appropriate vocational training for women,

RECOMMENDS AS FOLLOWS:

Article 1

It is recommended that the Member States should adopt a policy designed to encourage the participation of young and adult women in training schemes, especially those relevant to occupations of the future, and should develop specific measures, particularly as regards training, for occupations where women are under-represented.

Article 2

It is recommended that the Member States should introduce, continue or encourage active measures designed to:

(a) integrate training for women within a broader process of cooperation between all the parties concerned: the education authorities and oganizations, school and vocational guidance, the two sides of industry, the training organizations, the lenders of capital, the central and/or regional and/or local authorities, equal opportunities organizations, undertakings, women's groups or associations;

(b) staff the guidance, training and placement services with persons qualified to deal with the specific problems of women (e.g. equal opportunities counsellors) and to take measures to increase the awareness of instructors;

(c) reorganize the school, university and vocational guidance services in such a way that they seek out rather than wait to be approached by the people concerned;

(d) encourage the participation of women and girls in training courses by providing more decentralized and more widely distributed education and training facilities;

(e) develop awareness and information measures so as to offer women and those around them images of women engaged in non-traditional activities, particularly those related to occupations of the future;

(f) encourage the participation of girls in higher education, particularly in technical and technological fields, by:

- making provision within the grants system for ways of compensating for the double sexual and social handicap borne by girls from underprivileged backgrounds,

- adopting measures enabling girls to benefit on an equal footing from the programmes set up in the context of the links to be developed between universities and industry (in particular the COMETT programme) and from inter-university agreements promoting the mobility of students (particularly the ERASMUS programme),

- making efforts to steer girls towards key areas of new technology;

(g) encourage greater participation by girls in the various initial vocational training systems outside the education system, especially apprenticeships, other than those teaching certain 'female' occupations and adapt or, where appropriate, abolish types of training for women which do not provide real occupational skills or lead girls into overcrowded occupations;

(h) encourage girls and women to set up their own businesses or cooperatives by introducing special training and further training schemes particularly designed to provide:

- training in financial management,

- information on access to back-up and financial facilities;

(i) develop measures designed to promote the participation of women in continuous training entailing:

- campaigns to provide information and promote awareness of the potential offered by such training,

- measures to encourage women to follow such training courses, for example by adapting the conditions of training courses (e.g. timetables, duration and forms of training) to the specific problems of women and, where appropriate, by setting target figures, to be reviewed, particularly for sectors and occupations where women are under represented;

(j) provide specific courses for certain categories of women, particularly underprivileged women and women returning to work after an interruption, particularly in the confidence-building, awareness or pre-training phases;

(k) open up all types of training (paticularly those intended for unemployed people) to women wishing to return to work and encourage the two sides of industry to develop 'reintegration' projects providing training likely to enable the persons in question to re-enter the firm at the level at which they left;

(l) enable the spouses of self-employed workers who help with that self-employed activity to take advantage of training opportunities on the same terms as self-employed workers;

(m) introduce support measures such as the provision of flexible childminding arrangements and the establishment of the appropriate social infrastructures so as to enable mothers to take part in training schemes, the introduction of financial incentives or the payment of allowances during training;

(n) recognize skills acquired in running a household and looking after a family (exemption for certain course elements, etc); (o) monitor the progress of women having taken part in training schemes, particularly in occupations where women are underrepresented.

Article 3

The Member States shall inform the Commission within three years of the date of this Recommendation of the measures taken to give effect to it, in order to allow the Commission to draw up a report on all such measures.

Article 4

This Recommendation is addressed to the Member States.

Done at Brussels, 24 November 1987.

For the Commission

Manuel MARÍN

Vice-President

(1) OJ No L 39, 14. 1. 1976, p. 40.

(2) OJ No C 203, 24. 7. 1986, p. 2.

(3) OJ No L 222, 8. 8. 1986, p. 17.

(4) OJ No L 166, 25. 6. 1987, p. 20.

(5) OJ No C 193, 28. 7. 1982, p. 1.

(6) OJ No C 166, 5. 7. 1985, p. 1.

(7) COM(87) 90 final.

(8) COM(86) 780.