European boost of £4.7m to help women in jobs market

The Minister for Employment and Learning Carmel Hanna has announced news of a major European cash boost designed to promote women in the labour market.

A £4.7 million package from the European Social Fund (ESF) will be distributed between 12 separate projects across the province who qualified under the ‘Advancement of Women’ programme of helping women break into the job market.

The Minister said: “While all projects receiving ESF funding must offer real equality of opportunity to women, those which have been successful under this specific measure have been required to demonstrate that they will offer a wide range of approaches to tackle the problems often faced by women seeking to enter, or progress through, the labour market.

“Childcare provision, promotion and career progression and assistance towards becoming self-employed are all areas which will be covered by the successful projects. Women may also be helped through training to gain access to non-traditional occupations.

“This announcement completes the first round of ESF funding under the Programme. A further round of calls will be made in two years time. I look forward to visiting a number of the projects in the coming months,” she said.

The successful projects under ‘The Advancement of Women’ programme are: Belfast Women’s Training Services; Ashton Community Trust, Belfast; Employers for Childcare, Moira; University of Ulster – two projects - Women in Enterprise, Derry, and Pathways to Education and Employment for Women, Newtownabbey; Training for Women Network, Belfast; Advanced Learning Systems Ltd, Belfast; Invest Northern Ireland, Northern Ireland Pre-School Playgroup Association, Belfast; Windsor Women’s Centre, Belfast; North West Institute for Further and Higher Education, Derry; and The Prince’s Trust, Belfast.

(AMcE)