Iris

1) OBJECTIVE

To increase women's awareness by making known what training is available and to promote their training by helping to develop strategies and methods.

2) COMMUNITY MEASURES

IRIS programme, European network of training for women launched in December 1988.

3) CONTENTS

Beneficiaries

All women prepared to follow a training programme helping them to retrain and get back to work.

Operating method

The network is run by CREW (Centre for Research on European Women). The IRIS network comprises 333 programmes throughout the Member States. The Member States are involved in defining strategies for developing the network via the IRIS working party which meets twice a year.

Description of activities

The 333 programmes are aimed at improving women's access to public and private employment and to vocational training, increasing the number of women working in non-traditional sectors and training women to create businesses. The overwhelming majority of the programmes are aimed at long-term unemployed women trying to get back to work and young women without qualifications. Approximately 36% of the programmes train women in new technologies and 40% of the programmes are co-funded by the European Social Fund. The IRIS inventory supplies detailed information on the programmes. The selection criteria for the projects are being amended in 1991

Communications support:

• a database containing the projects and women's training programmes in the Member States;
• an IRIS information bulletin published four times a year;
• an inventory of training programmes in nine languages and updated annually.

Main activities

Four seminars were held in 1990 on in-house training and creation of businesses by women. Evaluation symposia took place in each Member State to discuss national policies and to propose recommendations. Information meetings are organized in cooperation with the members of the working party as are interprogramme exchange visits.