Ukraine has made significant legislative progress in the promotion of gender equality. It has ratified a number of international agreements, adopted a ‘Law on Ensuring Equal Rights and Opportunities for Women and Men’ and is implementing national and regional programmes to ensure gender equality. Nevertheless, women in Ukraine continue to suffer from multiple forms of discrimination. Gender inequality persists due to gaps in the enforcement of gender equality legislation. Discrimination in employment and gender stereotypes limit women’s access to jobs with better working conditions, which in turn reinforce existing inequalities.

In response to a request for technical assistance from the Ukrainian Government, the European Union and the International Labour Office (ILO) launched the joint technical cooperation project ‘Gender Equality in the World of Work’ in 2009. Its core objective has been to enable state bodies and social partners to promote gender equality and women’s empowerment in the world of work by developing, implementing and monitoring gender-sensitive employment policies and programmes.

As the key state agency responsible for effectively matching labour supply and demand, the Public Employment Service of Ukraine (PES) can play a significant role in promoting gender equality in the labour market, especially if equal opportunity principles are embedded within its operations. The way in which the PES implements its core functions – making available labour market information and job-brokering, employment counselling and vocational guidance, and the administration of passive and active labour market policies – may become an important tool in promoting equal access to quality employment for women and men and in redressing existing inequalities.

This training package has been developed to support the trainers of the Public Employment Service of Ukraine to design and deliver training courses on gender mainstreaming. The trainers’ guide includes examples, individual and group activities and other resources, including a glossary of gender mainstreaming terms, guidelines to support trainers in the design, implementation and validation of gender mainstreaming workshops, and other questionnaires and forms. The package also includes a guide for users, such as employment counsellors and staff members of local employment centres who interact with clients and are responsible for vocational guidance.

EU and ILO start a series of trainings in regions for the representatives of local employment centres

EU and ILO completed a nationwide gender-sensitive training cycle for the Public Employment Service