Monday, 24 January 2022 22:17

UNIQUE Research completed!

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Over the past few months, the project partners undertook extensive desk and fiel research in order to map the existing situation and framework in Greece, Cyprus, Bulgaria, Croatia, and Poland. The data collected at a national level were compiled and analyzed in a Transnational Benchmarking Report, aiming to identify discrimination patterns and norms in VET and provide a comparative methodology for the development and implementation of the training and capacity building activities of the project. The responses of a total number of 333 VET students and 160 VET teachers that completed an online survey across all participating countries were analyzed. In addition, further insights were gathered through the focus groups and interviews that were performed with the participation of 46 individuals, including VET students and teachers, as well as LGBTIQ experts, in the five target countries.

A general conclusion drawn from the review of the relevant literature and the findings of the field research is that, despite the important steps in recent years, discrimination against LGBTIQ people in various forms remains quite relevant in the VET sector. Notably, more than 50% of students and 40% of the teachers participating in the survey agreed, at least to a certain extent, that VET students are often harassed, bullied, or discriminated against for being LGBTIQ. Even though diverse rates and perceptions were in some cases expressed in the five target countries, similar issues and areas of need appear to emerge in all countries. Importantly, the most common patterns of discrimination, harassment, and bullying against LGBTIQ people in VET across all countries seem to take similar forms in terms of both nature and intensity, including various forms of verbal abuse, social exclusion and isolation, and more rare cases of physical attacks.

For more details, click here to read the National and Transnational Reports.