On March 21, 2022, the Coalition for Gender Equality organized a working meeting with representatives of the Romanian National Agency for Equal Opportunities between Women and Men (ANES) and the Romanian National Authority for Qualifications (ANC) on the occupation of expert / technician of equal opportunities in Romania. The meeting took place in a hybrid format, simultaneously at ANES headquarters and online.
In the opening of the discussions, Luminița Popescu, Secretary of State, reminded that the recommendation to hire an expert / technician in equal opportunities in public institutions and in private companies with more than 50 employees is stated in Law 202/2002, which regulates equal opportunities and treatment between women and men in our country. The head of ANES expressed her full support to improve these occupational standards to properly reflect the responsibilities provided for the two occupations introduced in the Law no 178/2018 which modifies Law no. 202/2002 concerning the equality of chances and treatment between men and women.
For an overview of the current situation, Irina Ilisei (Plural Association) presented to the audience the results of research on the recognition of gender expertise in Romania conducted within the EGALIS project: Gender equality through social change and education, emphasizing that the professions of equality expert (higher education) and equal opportunity technician (secondary education) were introduced in the Romanian Classification of Occupations (COR) in 2014. It is now necessary to update the content of these standards to be in line with the legislation, as well as with existing European recommendations.
Ilisei also explained that gender equality expertise is obtained - in different degrees and formats - by graduating from the 2 master's degree programs within SNSPA and the University of Bucharest, courses in the field within undergraduate or postgraduate programs, or by training courses offered by accredited private providers and, last but not least, through practical professional experience gained in activities in the field, for example in the projects of non-governmental organizations. However, only university studies that have registered their qualification in RNCIS (National Register of Higher Education Qualifications) and courses offered by accredited providers are formally recognized.
For pre-university employees there is the possibility to attend training courses at the Houses of the Teaching Staff (CCD), but in practice, as shown by Georgiana Lincan (E-Romnja Association), out of 26 CCDs that responded to our official questions, 24 do not offer any equal opportunities course and two others cover only tangentially the issue of gender equality.
The procedure of introducing new occupational standards in the Romanian Classification of Occupations and updating the existing ones was recently simplified by a joint order of the Ministry of Labor and the Ministry of Education, as ANC President Tiberiu-Gabriel Dobrescu informed during the discussions. The simplification applies to occupations required by EPSCO - EU Classification of Skills, Competences, Qualifications and Occupations. The respective Joint Order introduced a new regulation according to which the occupational standards are revised every 5 years, and after 10 years they are archived. Currently, more than 90% of the occupational standards in the COR are more than 10 years old, requiring a revision - the ANC president also mentioned.
Another topic of discussion was the role of universities in recognizing gender expertise. Prof. univ. Ionela Băluță, from the University of Bucharest, explained in her online intervention that universities have the task of ticking in RNCIS (National Register of Qualifications in Higher Education) the qualifications obtained after graduating from undergraduate and master's degree programs. It is necessary to include in the diploma supplement the qualifications obtained in agreement with the COR, in order to better integrate graduates into the labor market.
Universities have the possibility, when there is a demand on the labor market for experts in a certain field, to organize post-graduate courses for the respective qualifications, which is a simplified and more accessible way to train experts than to organize master's programs.
At the end of the meeting, the representatives of non-governmental organizations and academia expressed their appreciation for the openness ' to dialogue and support of the two public institutions. The newly formed working group that includes reprsenetatives of state institutions, academia and non-governamental sector will analyze in the next period the concrete steps to revise occupational standards and strengthen the role of universities in recognizing training in equal opportunities and gender expertize in the labor market.
The event is part of the project "EGALIS: Gender equality through social change and education", developed by the Partnership for Equality Center, in partnership with the Front Association, AnA - the Scientific Society for Feminist Analysis, ACTEDO - the Action Center for Equality and Rights Association Man, PLURAL Association and SEX vs The STORK Association, with financial support from Active Citizens Fund Romania, programme funded by Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway through the EEA Grants Grants 2014 -2021.
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