ABOUT
The economic situation since the crisis of 2008 has been at the root of a huge increase in the unemployment figures across Europe. Despite the economic recovery in some EU countries in the last months of 2013, the unemployment rate is still at 9,6% in the EU28, while in the USA it is 5,5% and in Japan 3,3% (Eurostat, May 2015). No country has been spared and we know that the longer people are unemployed, the more difficult it becomes for them to re-integrate into active life. Long-term unemployment often exacerbates other difficulties people may already be experiencing and those in poverty, coming from immigrant backgrounds, or who are illiterate or suffering from poor health are doubly handicapped. If, in conjunction with some of these other difficulties, those who are unemployed have also had negative previous experiences of education and training, this can be a real inhibition to their re-training chances; decreasing their self-confidence and self-esteem and their motivation to try to learn something new.
Women who are not working are, traditionally, less visible in the official unemployment figures and, therefore, they are often excluded (even if unintentionally) from governmental employment and training initiatives but, nonetheless, they constitute a huge bank of unused resources in our societies.
Training and employment initiatives undertaken towards this target group – since the beginning of the current economic crisis – have been largely uncoordinated in most cases – with no real long-term strategy to build on.
There tends to be a lack of networking opportunities between statutory and voluntary agencies. More networking could lead to a greater understanding of each other’s work and encourage more coherent progression routes for unemployed women thus promoting a better take-up of the services on offer.
Re-integrating a labor market which has limited job offers cannot be the only identified aim of training provisions for this target group: other life topics and learning needs such as confidence and self-esteem-building, self-employment, income-generating initiative-taking etc. need to be explored and developed. More innovative training and non-formal education programmes – which will reach the women where they are – in their own communities - are called for.
This project was created by a group of women who wants to improve women’s economical empowerment in their local area. If you want to know how, read more about our objectives and activities!
This project has been funded with support of the European Commission. This website reflects the views only of the authors and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.