European Trade Union Committee for Education

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The BEYOND project, a European initiative bringing together education personnel, trade unions, parents, and teacher training experts, from early childhood and primary education, is coming to an end having produced a number of practical tools, materials and policy recommendations on building the capacity of education personnel and other key stakeholders in education to build gender equality from early years.

Teachers, school leaders, trade unionists, and representatives from parents' associations gathered in Rome on 29March 2023 to attend the final conference of the BEYOND project “Beyond gender stereotypes: starting from early years”. The two-year-long BEYOND project, co-funded by the European Commission and led by the Italian Labour Union (UIL), brought together trade unions including ETUCE and its members, the Lithuanian education and science trade union and The Bulgarian Union of Teachers, teacher training providers, and parents’ associations, with the aim of building gender quality from early years through training opportunities for education personnel; developing new competences to deconstruct gender biases in early childhood and primary education; and renewing alliances with parents and families.

The final conference was an opportunity to reflect on its key outcomes including:

• Online Training Course on gender equality
• Database for Good Practices for countering stereotypes and discriminations in early years education settings across Europe
• Gender Competences Framework for Education Personnel in Early Years’ and Primary Education Settings
• Capacity Building Strategy which assesses the capacity of education personnel to overcome gender biases and stereotypes in early childhood and primary education and highlights the existing challenges and gaps they face in obtaining and employing gender competences.
• Policy Recommendations on ensuring gender equality through education from early years
• Awareness Raising Campaign ‘Be part of the change!’ online and offline, including posters, videos, social media messages, and relevant news from participating countries.

The conference was also the opportunity for representatives from Cyprus, Italy, Lithuania and Bulgaria to present the outcomes of the national trainings and piloting in their country. Each of these national trainings, counting between 30 and 50 participants, were well received, benefiting from a high level of active participation. The materials used in the trainings and complemented by the European level policy frameworks were collected in the Online Training Course on gender equality. The course targets teachers, school leaders and other education personnel working in early years and primary education settings aiming to provide them with the basic knowledge and tools needed to include gender equality in their daily work and being able to change their values, attitudes and behaviours towards more gender equality. The is provided in English, Italian, Bulgarian, Lithuanian and Greek, reflecting the specificities of the countries and the experience of the partners in national trainings.