5. There appears to be a set of rising expectations related to the educational requirements used to determine admission to occupational training programs and to the jobs available in those occupations. The National Council of Welfare, in a report on Canada's working poor, states that:

"Educational requirements often bear little or no sensible relation to the skills and aptitudes actually needed for a job. When these requirements are boosted unnecessarily, a double form of under- employment results. More educated workers are forced to accept jobs: that previously called for lower qualifications, while less educated workers are squeezed into worse jobs or out of the market altogether." ¹

This may work a particular hardship for women. They tend to be under-employed now (i.e. not employed at the level for which they were educated and trained). This is partly the result of current employment conditions; partly the result of the necessity of accepting any job for economic reasons; and partly the result of women often being overlycautious in taking risks and reluctant to learn on-the-job or to apply for positions until they are thoroughly trained (and often over-trained).

This problem increases as the employment and economic conditions worsen. Those who already have jobs begin to demand protection, often through raising the education/training required as hiring criteria.

As the supply of well-educated workers increases, the educational screening also increases. This in turn raises the educational prerequisites for occupational training and increases the need for academic upgrading. The more upgrading a trainee requires, the less likely that she will be accepted.

When the educational requirement for any occupation reaches the post-secondary level, women are at a distinct disadvantage. Fewer than 15% of young women go on to attend post-secondary institutions, while more than 20% of young men attend. Since the occupations requiring the highest educational and training levels also carry the largest wages, women lose out in both jobs and wages.

The general outcome of these rising expectations with respect to CMTP programs is that, in the future, they will likely cater more and more to those who already have some secondary education (and possibly some occupational training), and less and less to those without.

^1. National Council of Welfare, Jobs and poverty: A report on Canada's working poor. (Ottawa: National Council of Welfare, 1977), p. 24.