Four National Women's Groups: CCLOW · CFWEC · CRIAW · NOIVMWC

Prior Learning Assessment, allowing advanced credit for life experience and for skills and knowledge acquired outside the formal Canadian school system is needed in order to ensure that women have access to post-secondary education.

For visible minority women, immigrants and refugees who have received foreign accreditation, assessment and acknowledgment of foreign equivalency to Canadian education requirements must be part of a Prior Learning Assessment system.

Distance education networks, which make post-secondary accreditation accessible to rural, remote, coastal and northern women are also of critical importance. A recent report by the Canadian Farm Women's Education Council found that the most significant barriers for farm women to acquiring further education were related to geographical distance and scheduling. Distance education programming must include adequate choice, so that people can gain qualifications in a relevant field of study.

Women in Canada tend to enter post-secondary education rather than men, experience more interruptions, take longer to complete and have more difficulty securing well-paying jobs at the end of their education. The Green Paper proposal for an Income Contingent Repayment Plan is likely to increase tuition costs during education and to result in large, longer term debt loads for graduates. This will act as a disincentive and will effectively limit access for low- income students - many of whom are women. It is critically important that any changes to post-secondary financing arrangements enhance women's access to post-secondary education. The Income Contingent Plan will not do that.

Women involved in post-secondary education require the same kind of support that women in literacy programs do because they face the same systemic barriers. Financial assistance, child care, counselling and other supports are fundamental to success.

Post-secondary education must be viewed within a larger context. Job creation strategies, pay equity, employment equity and measures to allow for the integration of paid and unpaid work responsibilities are essential in order to ensure that women get full value out of their post-secondary education.

Between 1987 and 1992, the number of women who were unemployed and who had post-secondary education increased by 74.3%. Among women with doctorates, 39% report significant difficulties in finding employment.