The unemployment rate for women is more than twice that of men, says Shahindokht Molaverdi, vice president for Women and Family Affairs.
On the sidelines of the recent fourth national and third international conference on skills training and employment, she said, “Despite the growing number of female graduates, their employment rate in recent years has not exceeded 12%.”
Given the current state of the labor market, there is no capacity to fill up the high volume of applications. Therefore, the government should take measures to promote women’s economic participation.
“We have held a number of useful meetings” with Iran Technical and Vocational Training Organization, the Ministry of Cooperatives, Labor and Social Welfare, and Office of the Vice President for Science and Technology “to achieve this goal,” she said.
Women’s empowerment can be achieved through skills development. Currently rural women, female prisoners and university graduates are target groups.
The conference was held at the IRIB International Conference Center and its theme was “market-oriented skills trainings in knowledge-based economy.”
Skills training, new professions, vocational competencies of university students and graduates, virtual skill training, women empowerment were debated at the meet, which was also attended by, Minister of Cooperatives Ali Rabiei.
