6. The CEIC takes a dim view of providing academic upgrading to adult trainees. The recent review of Manpower programs has identified BTSD programs (Basic Training for Skill Development) as a major soft-spot in terms of its effectiveness (read cost-benefit) in either getting trainees into jobs or into skill training courses. BTSD was originally seen as compensating for past inadequacies in educational opportunities, mainly by giving a second chance to older workers. However, over one-third of BTSD trainees are now under 20 years of age. Moreover, a significant number of trainees have already completed Grade 10 at secondary school. The report goes on to say that:

"(BTSD programs) do not accord with the primary aim of Manpower Training, to recycle workers for the labour force rather than to substitute for the provincial education system. Accordingly, it is intended to limit ... the application of the BTSD component, so that training is provided to those adults for whom it was originally intended and whose needs are for employment."¹

While the report indicates that the new guidelines are intended to limit the number of trainees under 20 years of age, we also read the report as planning to limit the enrolment of women in BTSD programs. Note from Tables 12 and 13 that BTSD women trainees are more likely to be over 20 years of age. Only one-fifth are under 20 years. If over one-third of all BTSD trainees are under 20 years, as the report states, then most of these must be men.

The Minister responsible for the CEIC, states in one report that BTSD trainees can be interpreted as a failure on the part of the provincial educational systems. He goes on to say that:

"What happened to them in the past or, whether it is their fault of the fault of the educational system, does not enter into it. They are now on our doorstep ... requiring employment ... and their skills are such, by virtue of having dropped out, or whatever the reasons, that they cannot get a job unless they have this training."²

BTSD programs, therefore, represent a conflict in the constitutional jurisdiction between the federal and provincial systems, and women tend to fall into the empty space between the two. The CEIC views women as secondary earners with only marginal (or minor) attachments to the labour force or as housekeepers who are not part of the labour force; and, therefore, not as a major priority within their jurisdiction. The provincial educational systems view drop-outs as individual failures, rather than as failures of the system; and, therefore, not as a priority within their jurisdiction. As economic resources become more limited, the under-educated female learner becomes a lower and lower priority. The less able she is to pay her own way, the lower she goes on the priority list.

What we really need is no-fault education in which neither the system nor the individual is viewed as a failure and in which the problem is to be fixed rather than the blame. Interestingly, it appears that women are more often viewed as individual failures (she didn't try hard enough the first time' around), while men are more likely to be viewed as failures of the system ! (what can a boy expect from a female-dominated profession).

The issue of constitutional rights and the provision of education and/or training is a major problem area which has the potential for being used both as a way to divert our attention from our primary concerns about women's access to CMTP programs and as a way to reduce the CEIC budget. For example, one recent decision was that CMCs and CECs will no longer participate in local Career Days at secondary schools. The conflict is both a budgetary cutback and a constitutional problem. The result is that young women will have even less information about occupations and training than they have now.

^1. CEIC, Manpower Training Branch, "The Canada Manpower Training Program: A policy review". (Ottawa: CEIC, Manpower Training Branch, 1977), p. 14.

^2. Standing Senate Committee on National Finance (Hon. D.D. Everett, Chairman), Report of the Standing Senate Committee on National Finance on Canada Manpower. An examination of the Manpower Division, Department of Manpower and Immigration, 1975. (Ottawa: Government of Canada, 1976), p. 81