The patterns by which women are hired and/or referred to jobs or to CMTP programs tend to become self-perpetuating through a cyclical process which is hard to alter:

• women who go to CMCs are most often untrained, under-educated, and/or require language skills;

• CMCs offer jobs, many of which are low-skill and low-wage;

• women continue to be referred to these low-skill, low-wage jobs;

• women tend to be employed in low-wage and often low-skilled jobs in the clerical and service occupations (i.e. traditional occupations)

• target quotas in CMTP programs which are non-traditional for women are based on statistical data about employment patterns, client characteristics, predicted labour market conditions, "reasonable expectations" for employment; and a factor which could be called a "goodness-of-heart" target for encouraging women's participation in non-traditional occupations. When the target quotas are reached no more women are referred to that program.

• getting into a non-traditional CMTP program is one thing, getting hired is another. At present only those women who finish at the top of their class are hired and these women are likely to have been partially trained and relatively well-educated to start with.

The point at which one would intervene in this system is not clear. We could push for affirmative action programs in the CEIC and/or in the hiring industries; we could encourage good women to enter non-traditional occupations and become pioneering "token" women; we could provide support for those women who are already in these pioneering positions; we could find ways to ensure that young women do not drop out of secondary school before completion.

4. Unskilled women of low educational attainment are the most poorly served by CMTP programs. This problem is the result of restrictive rules and lack of clarity in the policies involved.

The AOT Act states that an adult can be enrolled in a CMTP program is, in the opinion of the CMC counselor, the course will provide that adult with "the necessary skills to increase his/her earning capacity, or his/her opportunities for employment". The underlying assumptions suggest that:

• the applicant should be already in the labour force and earning money (i.e. be classifiable as employed or unemployed and seeking work).

• there should be positions available now or in the near future for the occupational skill involved.

• the applicant's skill area should have a higher level of skill for which one can be trained in a training program.

• increasing one's skills will increase "reasonable prospects" for employment and increased earning capacity.