TABLES 10 and 11 indicate changes in the number and percentage of women enrolled in training for specific occupations under the General Industrial Training or Institutional Skill Training Programs in 1980/1981 (the first year that this information was available) and in 1983/1984. TABLE 12 also shows the previous education level of trainees in 1976/1977 and in 1983/1984.

The TABLES show:

  • From 1980/1981 to 1983/1984, women's share of training spaces had declined from 27% to 24% in General Industrial Training and from 41% to 30% in Institutional Skills Training.

  • In both Programs, women's share of managerial/ administrative training has increased although the number of women in General Industrial Training dropped substantially (from 414 in 1980/1981 to 147 in 1983/1984).

  • The number of women trainees in Primary and Secondary industry areas was cut by more than half (under the GIT Program, from 349 to 96 in Primary industries and from 7741 to 3281 in Secondary industries; under the Institutional Skills Training Program, from 556 to 381 in Primary industries and from 3469 to 3002 in Secondary industries).

    In most cases, this also constituted a decrease in women's share of training spaces.

  • The education level of trainees prior to entering these Programs became somewhat higher. While women with higher educational attainment may have been more successful in Industrial Training programs, this change served to exclude poorly educated women. These women require up-grading before they can access the type of training that leads to well-paying jobs. Thus, it is still the case that these women, who most need up-grading and training in order to earn a livable wage, were being largely ignored in this major government initiative.

  • As in all other areas of education and training, women continued to be disproportionately represented in traditionally women's occupations.

Boothby, in his analysis of Employment and Immigration training programs, agrees that these programs have "done little to diversify the occupational distribution of women beyond stereotypical female occupations At best, (EIC) training programs have simply reflected the occupational segregation by sex in the labor market".*



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