opinion parliamentary committee draft, 1 July 2026

On boosting skills in the Union – opportunities for vocational education and training in times of transition

Document FEMM-PA-790216 · (2026/2070(INI))

Committee on Women’s Rights and Gender Equality · Rapporteur: Lina Gálvez

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Amendment 1
Amendment 2
Amendment 3
Amendment 4
Amendment 5
Amendment 6
Amendment 7
Amendment 8
Amendment 9
Amendment 10

Amendments 51 paragraphs

The Committee on Women’s Rights and Gender Equality submits the following to the Committee on Employment and Social Affairs, as the committee responsible :

Amendment 1

Motion for a resolution

Paragraph 1

Motion for a resolution	Amendment
Motion for a resolution1. Highlights the importance of VET for the EU’s economic prosperity and competitiveness; stresses the importance of promoting and valorising VET in order to improve its attractiveness as a quality pathway to employment; calls on the Commission to ensure that the upcoming VET strategy addresses the quality and relevance of VET curricula, coupled with improved promotion of VET programmes to learners, employers and the wider public;	Amendment1. Highlights the importance of VET for the EU’s economic prosperity and competitiveness; stresses the importance of promoting and valorising VET in order to improve its attractiveness as a quality pathway to employment; calls on the Commission to ensure that the upcoming VET strategy addresses the quality and relevance of VET curricula, coupled with improved promotion of VET programmes to learners, employers and the wider public; notes, furthermore, that the upcoming framework must explicitly recognise gender equality and women’s empowerment as fundamental objectives of VET alongside employability, competitiveness and lifelong learning; highlights that this would require all Member States to integrate gender mainstreaming into the design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of VET programmes; notes that VET programmes should become a key instrument for challenging gender stereotypes by offering career guidance, while increasingly encouraging girls to consider technical occupations and boys to enter care-related professions, in order to reduce occupational segregation at the same time;

Motion for a resolution

Amendment

1. Highlights the importance of VET for the EU’s economic prosperity and competitiveness; stresses the importance of promoting and valorising VET in order to improve its attractiveness as a quality pathway to employment; calls on the Commission to ensure that the upcoming VET strategy addresses the quality and relevance of VET curricula, coupled with improved promotion of VET programmes to learners, employers and the wider public; notes, furthermore, that the upcoming framework must explicitly recognise gender equality and women’s empowerment as fundamental objectives of VET alongside employability, competitiveness and lifelong learning; highlights that this would require all Member States to integrate gender mainstreaming into the design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of VET programmes; notes that VET programmes should become a key instrument for challenging gender stereotypes by offering career guidance, while increasingly encouraging girls to consider technical occupations and boys to enter care-related professions, in order to reduce occupational segregation at the same time;

Or. en

Amendment 2

Motion for a resolution

Paragraph 2

Motion for a resolution	Amendment
Motion for a resolution2. Stresses that VET should be viewed as a tool that can both support the personal development of students and workers and address labour market shortages, thereby contributing to the EU’s competitiveness and supporting innovation in strategic sectors;	Amendment2. Stresses that VET should be viewed as a tool that can both support the personal development of students and workers and address labour market shortages, thereby contributing to the EU’s competitiveness and supporting innovation in strategic sectors; recalls, in particular, that VET, by providing practical routes to employment, constitutes a critical instrument not only for young people entering the workforce but also for adults seeking to upskill or reskill throughout their careers, especially for women who continue to experience lower labour market participation rates, lower wages and more employment interruptions due to childcare or other caregiving responsibilities or discrimination in career progression or unfair remuneration;

Motion for a resolution

Amendment

2. Stresses that VET should be viewed as a tool that can both support the personal development of students and workers and address labour market shortages, thereby contributing to the EU’s competitiveness and supporting innovation in strategic sectors; recalls, in particular, that VET, by providing practical routes to employment, constitutes a critical instrument not only for young people entering the workforce but also for adults seeking to upskill or reskill throughout their careers, especially for women who continue to experience lower labour market participation rates, lower wages and more employment interruptions due to childcare or other caregiving responsibilities or discrimination in career progression or unfair remuneration;

Or. en

Amendment 3

Read the rest (39 paragraphs)

Motion for a resolution

Paragraph 3

Motion for a resolution	Amendment
Motion for a resolution3. Stresses the need to ensure that VET students and graduates feel that their qualifications and professions are valued equally to academic education, to ensure social cohesion and inclusion	Amendment3. Stresses the need to ensure that VET students and graduates feel that their qualifications and professions are valued equally to academic education, to ensure social cohesion and inclusion, especially for women in vulnerable situations and those affected by intersectional discrimination, such as migrants, refugees, single mothers, women discriminated against because of their sexual orientation or gender expression, rural populations, women with disabilities and long-term unemployed women, in order to promote equal opportunities and allow their full participation in economic, social and political life;

Motion for a resolution

Amendment

3. Stresses the need to ensure that VET students and graduates feel that their qualifications and professions are valued equally to academic education, to ensure social cohesion and inclusion

3. Stresses the need to ensure that VET students and graduates feel that their qualifications and professions are valued equally to academic education, to ensure social cohesion and inclusion, especially for women in vulnerable situations and those affected by intersectional discrimination, such as migrants, refugees, single mothers, women discriminated against because of their sexual orientation or gender expression, rural populations, women with disabilities and long-term unemployed women, in order to promote equal opportunities and allow their full participation in economic, social and political life;

Or. en

Amendment 4

Motion for a resolution

Paragraph 4 a (new)

Motion for a resolution	Amendment
Motion for a resolution	Amendment4a. Calls on the Commission, in order to ensure and verify compliance with gender equality requirements, to promote the use of key measures including: a mandatory gender impact assessment for new VET policies, gender-responsive budgeting to ensure adequate funding for equality initiatives, and the collection and publication of sex-disaggregated data on enrolment, completion, apprenticeships, employment outcomes, wages and career progression;

Motion for a resolution

Amendment

4a. Calls on the Commission, in order to ensure and verify compliance with gender equality requirements, to promote the use of key measures including: a mandatory gender impact assessment for new VET policies, gender-responsive budgeting to ensure adequate funding for equality initiatives, and the collection and publication of sex-disaggregated data on enrolment, completion, apprenticeships, employment outcomes, wages and career progression;

Or. en

Amendment 5

Motion for a resolution

Paragraph 5

Motion for a resolution	Amendment
Motion for a resolution5. Calls for the Member States and the EU institutions to involve VET students and graduates at all levels of policymaking to ensure equal participation, and to offer VET traineeships;	Amendment5. Calls for the Member States and the EU institutions to involve VET students and graduates at all levels of policymaking to ensure equal participation, and to offer VET traineeships, ensuring that girls have equal opportunities to enrol in vocational programmes across all sectors, including traditionally male-dominated industries; notes that some sectors continue to recruit significantly fewer women apprentices, limiting opportunities for practical experience and career progression; highlights the need to address research findings that consistently show that the under-representation of women in certain industries can reduce girls’ confidence in entering these professions;

Motion for a resolution

Amendment

5. Calls for the Member States and the EU institutions to involve VET students and graduates at all levels of policymaking to ensure equal participation, and to offer VET traineeships;

5. Calls for the Member States and the EU institutions to involve VET students and graduates at all levels of policymaking to ensure equal participation, and to offer VET traineeships, ensuring that girls have equal opportunities to enrol in vocational programmes across all sectors, including traditionally male-dominated industries; notes that some sectors continue to recruit significantly fewer women apprentices, limiting opportunities for practical experience and career progression; highlights the need to address research findings that consistently show that the under-representation of women in certain industries can reduce girls’ confidence in entering these professions;

Or. en

Amendment 6

Motion for a resolution

Paragraph 8

Motion for a resolution	Amendment
Motion for a resolution8. Calls on the Commission to support the Member States in investing sufficiently in VET through country-specific recommendations in the European Semester and the earmarking of EU funding; recalls the successful investment, under the Just Transition Fund, in local economies through a combination of funding for skills and for small and medium-sized enterprises, and recommends that this example be followed under the Member States’ national and regional partnership plans, in order to promote VET;	Amendment8. Calls on the Commission to support the Member States in investing sufficiently in VET through country-specific recommendations in the European Semester and the earmarking of EU funding; recalls the successful investment, under the Just Transition Fund, in local economies through a combination of funding for skills and for small and medium-sized enterprises, and recommends that this example be followed under the Member States’ national and regional partnership plans, in order to promote VET; highlights the importance of increasing women’s participation in skilled occupations, which expands the labour force and helps address demographic challenges associated with Europe’s ageing population;

Motion for a resolution

Amendment

8. Calls on the Commission to support the Member States in investing sufficiently in VET through country-specific recommendations in the European Semester and the earmarking of EU funding; recalls the successful investment, under the Just Transition Fund, in local economies through a combination of funding for skills and for small and medium-sized enterprises, and recommends that this example be followed under the Member States’ national and regional partnership plans, in order to promote VET;

Or. en

Amendment 7

Motion for a resolution

Paragraph 9

Motion for a resolution	Amendment
Motion for a resolution9. Supports EU- and national-level partnerships between employers and VET providers to improve the relevance and quality of VET curricula; calls for the linking of VET providers to regional industrial and technological clusters	Amendment9. Supports EU- and national-level partnerships between employers and VET providers to improve the relevance and quality of VET curricula; calls for the linking of VET providers to regional industrial and technological clusters, with particular focus on supporting women’s entrepreneurship, in order to enable women to establish businesses, especially in digital services, creative industries and sustainable sectors;

Motion for a resolution

Amendment

9. Supports EU- and national-level partnerships between employers and VET providers to improve the relevance and quality of VET curricula; calls for the linking of VET providers to regional industrial and technological clusters, with particular focus on supporting women’s entrepreneurship, in order to enable women to establish businesses, especially in digital services, creative industries and sustainable sectors;

Or. en

Amendment 8

Motion for a resolution

Paragraph 10

Motion for a resolution	Amendment
Motion for a resolution10. Calls for broader inclusion of VET in existing EU policies and programmes; encourages better integration of VET bodies in the development of innovation policies to enhance the dissemination and uptake of innovative solutions across sectors; insists on the need to support skills investment in strategic sectors under the policy windows of the proposed European Competitiveness Fund;	Amendment10. Calls for broader inclusion of VET in existing EU policies and programmes; encourages better integration of VET bodies in the development of innovation policies to enhance the dissemination and uptake of innovative solutions across sectors; insists on the need to support skills investment in strategic sectors under the policy windows of the proposed European Competitiveness Fund; insists on the use of VET programmes to reduce skills shortages faced by Europe, particularly in sectors such as healthcare, information and communications technology, engineering, green technologies and construction, by encouraging more women to enter these fields through VET, which enlarges the available talent pool; stresses the need to adopt a gender-transformative approach that actively removes structural barriers faced by women and girls throughout vocational education, apprenticeships and employment;

Motion for a resolution

Amendment

10. Calls for broader inclusion of VET in existing EU policies and programmes; encourages better integration of VET bodies in the development of innovation policies to enhance the dissemination and uptake of innovative solutions across sectors; insists on the need to support skills investment in strategic sectors under the policy windows of the proposed European Competitiveness Fund; insists on the use of VET programmes to reduce skills shortages faced by Europe, particularly in sectors such as healthcare, information and communications technology, engineering, green technologies and construction, by encouraging more women to enter these fields through VET, which enlarges the available talent pool; stresses the need to adopt a gender-transformative approach that actively removes structural barriers faced by women and girls throughout vocational education, apprenticeships and employment;

Or. en

Amendment 9

Motion for a resolution

Paragraph 11

Motion for a resolution	Amendment
Motion for a resolution11. Stresses that AI and automation have led to an increased need for reskilling; emphasises, in this context, the increasing importance of accessible training for all workers for their current or alternative careers;	Amendment11. Stresses that AI and automation have led to an increased need for reskilling; emphasises, in this context, the increasing importance of accessible training for all workers for their current or alternative careers; emphasises that modern VET policies should actively encourage girls to pursue vocational pathways in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), considering that increasing the participation of women in these sectors helps reduce labour shortages while promoting gender equality and boosting European competitiveness;

Motion for a resolution

Amendment

11. Stresses that AI and automation have led to an increased need for reskilling; emphasises, in this context, the increasing importance of accessible training for all workers for their current or alternative careers; emphasises that modern VET policies should actively encourage girls to pursue vocational pathways in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), considering that increasing the participation of women in these sectors helps reduce labour shortages while promoting gender equality and boosting European competitiveness;

Or. en

Amendment 10

Motion for a resolution

Paragraph 12 a (new)

Motion for a resolution	Amendment
Motion for a resolution	Amendment12a. Underlines the need to increase women’s leadership in VET governance in order to allow women’s perspectives to be represented in decision-making bodies responsible for vocational education policy; emphasises that, in order to achieve this, the Commission and the Member States should encourage balanced gender representation on VET advisory boards, increased recruitment of women instructors in technical fields and consultation with women’s organisations, trade unions, employers and civil society when developing VET strategies;

Motion for a resolution

Amendment

12a. Underlines the need to increase women’s leadership in VET governance in order to allow women’s perspectives to be represented in decision-making bodies responsible for vocational education policy; emphasises that, in order to achieve this, the Commission and the Member States should encourage balanced gender representation on VET advisory boards, increased recruitment of women instructors in technical fields and consultation with women’s organisations, trade unions, employers and civil society when developing VET strategies;

Or. en

Annex: declaration of input 1 paragraph

The rapporteur declares under his exclusive responsibility that he did not include in his report input from interest representatives falling within the scope of the Interinstitutional Agreement on a mandatory transparency register1, or from representatives of public authorities of third countries, including their diplomatic missions and embassies, to be listed in this Annex pursuant to Article 8 of Annex I to the Rules of Procedure.