Equal Opportunities and European Educational/Vocational Policy [and] Equal Opportunities and the European Social Fund.

This document contains a symposium paper and a conference paper. "Equal Opportunities and European Educational and Vocational Policy" explores the symposium theme of concepts of difference as it relates directly to the European discourse of equal opportunities and its influence on European educational and vocational policy. It outlines the economic roots of European equal opportunities policy and identifies the main structures and processes by which it works: the Action Programs, the Equal Opportunities Unit, and the European Social Fund (ESF). It considers the discourse itself and argues that in its gender exclusivity it is effectively ridden with class and race assumptions and divisions. Finally, the paper considers the European discourse in relation to the similarity/difference debate surrounding the equality of women. "Equal Opportunities and the European Social Fund" explores the linkage between the discourse of equal opportunities and the training policies of ESF. Drawing on research findings, the paper focuses on the ways in which the discourse of equal opportunities influences the ESF's Objective 3 vocational policies for unemployed women. It argues that the discourse of equal opportunities focuses so intently on gender--a gender exclusivity that, combined with a lack of class or race analysis, leads to the ESF's persistent and simplistic emphasis on training unemployed women in nontraditional manual skills. (YLB)