  Main page Adult Learning and EducationVirtual Event Brief: A team of experts from the League of Professional Women and stakeholders held a virtual discussion on the preliminary results of the study on women's learning needs in Ukraine |  | |
 | Virtual Event Brief: A team of experts from the League of Professional Women and stakeholders held a virtual discussion on the preliminary results of the study on women's learning needs in Ukraine |
In June 18, 2020, at the initiative of the NGO "League of Professional Women" (LPW) about 20 participants from all over Ukraine discussed the learning needs of women from the standpoint of providers and users of adult learning service. Adult learning and education (short-ALE) affects three main areas of human life: health and well-being; employment and labor market; social and civic, public life. The virtual conference was the next, after the May`s online expert survey, within the implementation of the research project "Women`s Learning Needs Analysis in Ukraine" with the support of the CIVICUS Solidarity Fund. "The importance of this project is evidenced by at least the following data: first, the age structure of the population of Ukraine, because in the country 74.48% of people are aged 25 to 65, and most of them are women. Second, the national analysis carried out by the League of Professional Women in 2019 on the target in the SDG 4 "Quality Education" for the UN High Level Political Forum (HLPF) in New York notes additional challenges for the analysis of adult learning needs in Ukraine, especially women (women - employers and entrepreneurs, women professionals and women from marginalized and vulnerable groups). These groups of women became the target groups for analysis in this project "- said Olena Lazorenko, President of the League of Professional Women (hereinafter - the LPW) and moderator & speaker of the event. 
The first session of the conference focused on the preliminary results of the online expert survey, which took place on May 8-22, 2020. Nina Chala, a member of the LPW, presented the survey methodology, profile of experts in adult learning (including representatives from Kyiv and Mariupol cities, as well as from Kharkiv, Kyiv, Sumy, Zaporizhia, Lviv, Vinnytsia and Mykolayiv regions), experts` assessment of women's professional competencies, in particular from vulnerable and marginalized groups, the level of satisfaction of their needs in obtaining the necessary skills and knowledge, as well as barriers to access to ALE. According to the survey, professional women use the most services of ALE in the country (84.2%) and women employers the least (5.3%). All polled experts along with a high assessment of the professional knowledge of professional women, also note the high level of communication skills and presentations, online skills (information retrieval, digital security, digital literacy). Skills that need to be developed include: design thinking, creative thinking, internet marketing, career planning, emotional resilience, change management, project management skills. Experts noted that in order to be fully involved in the labor market, women from vulnerable and marginalized groups need, in the context of the survey, primarily knowledge about the possibilities of social and government support, as well as skills in organizing work in the digital space. Among the barriers to ALE access for women - the most important were (in the order of choice): financial costs of the program; lack of flexibility in the schedule of classes; lack of access to child care; responsibilities in the workplace and lack of information at the local level. Among the recommendations of the survey was the importance of forming values at the state level in a society where the professional realization of women is higher than their sexual attractiveness. Women's professional success forms a strong community, so local governments should actively support ALE, including by creating the appropriate infrastructure. Learning service providers should pay more attention to the flexibility of ALE programs and courses for women. 
During the second session of the conference, presenting the general situation of ALE service users in Ukraine, Olena Lazorenko acquainted the participants with the results of a poll on non-formal adult learning in a national sociology poll conducted by the Democratic Initiatives Foundation at the request of the League of Professional Women, in December 13-18, 2019. The issues concerned the participation of women and men in short-term forms of non-formal learning, which ensures the development of personal abilities or professional development, as well as the sources of funding for such participation in non-formal adult learning. According to these data for 2019, in Ukraine as a whole 8.5% of people participated in non-formal adult learning programs. 9.1% of women and 8.8% of men gave an affirmative answer to this question. The most active are in the west of Ukraine (11.6%), followed by the east of country (11.4%). In the South - 9.3% and in the Center - 5.2%. In context of sources of funding for participation in these forms of non-formal adult learning, the largest number were received by the next two - payment by the current or future employer (44.6% - for men and 26.3% - for women); and also - self-payment (24.7% - for men and 26.3% - for women). Project experts Olga Gomilko, Rodion Kolyshko and Valentyna Legka took part in the discussion of the results of quantitative and qualitative research. The presentation materials of the virtual conference can be found at: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1kYSpYKnLE9lg_Ej_vMBKcUllcXkMY81v/view (in Ukrainian only) 
Based on the results of the project study, recommendations will be offered for providers of educational services and professional communities, for policy makers (local governments, public authorities at the national level), for service users in Ukraine, which will contain the publication at final stage of the project. Publication in digital and printed versions will be this fall. Follow the messages on our digital communication resources: website www.lpw.org.ua and Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/LPWUA/ | 
