Changes in Female Entry to Trade Training in South Australia

This study examines whether there were significant changes in the entry of young women to trade training in South Australia as a result of equal opportunities policies and initiatives to change the means of entry to trade training. It surveys the period 1981 to 1984 because that, like the present, was a period of change in education and training arrangements. It looks at women's hold on places in pre‐vocational courses and apprenticeships in the most male‐dominated trade areas and examines in detail the outcomes of the first three Introduction to Trades for Young Women courses in 1982 and 1983. It concludes that they led to only a slight improvement in female participation in trade training. The difficulties these courses faced in articulating with both student income support policies and the selection procedures for pre‐vocational courses are discussed. The study demonstrates a marginal increase in the numbers of female apprentices outside hairdressing between 1981 and 1984 and evidence of weak commitment to an effective equal opportunities policy. A brief comparison is made between the situation at the beginning and end of the decade. This suggests that female participation in the most male‐dominated trades areas in South Australia was generally lower than the Australian average in those areas, an outcome which must open to question the policy commitment to change

Apprenticeship · Business · Demographic economics · Economic growth · Economics · Geography · Labour economics · Period (music · Political science · Project commissioning · Publishing · Training (meteorology · Vocational education · Education Systems and Policy

• Not a Departmental Statement”

  Open Access•Denise Bradley•Australian Journal of Public…•1992

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