13 May 2004

Increasing women’s participation in Industry Training and Modern Apprenticeships

Women’s participation in Industry Training, including Modern Apprenticeships, can further increase according to a research report released by the Industry Training Federation today.

The report suggests the removal of restrictive government policy, broadening the range of career choices through better information, selective marketing, and investigating possible gender discrimination will increase female participation.

“The Federation wrote this report to stimulate discussion and get people to take action on structural issues that restrict women participating in training”, said Darel Hall Executive Director of the Industry Training Federation.

“Women make up around a quarter of all industry trainees, but just seven percent of Modern Apprentices.

“Extending the coverage of industry training to key female-dominated sectors such as Education, Health and Finance will substantially contribute to increasing women’s participation in industry training.

“Similarly, if the government extends Modern Apprenticeships to key femaledominated sectors and increases the number of Modern Apprenticeships, female participation will increase markedly.

“The report also argues that we need to promote skilled careers to women better and ensure women have good information to make good decisions about their career choices.

“We also need to test whether gender discrimination is limiting women’s participation. Other research has found evidence for inaccurate and stereotypical perceptions of women in some instances.

“The ITF is proud to release this report and see further debate about how to increase women’s participation in Industry training including Modern Apprenticeships”, said Darel Hall.

The report is available at: http://www.itf.org.nz/publications.htm.

ENDS

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