In British Columbia, in Powell River, Malaspina College has been involved in sponsoring a General Mechanics course for women. The program ran in two sessions, starting in February 1984 and February 1985. Each session was 9 months in length and provided women with credit for their first apprenticeship year. Each class included 16 people. The program did not run in 1986 or 1987 because federal government funding was no longer available. Staff at Malaspina also believe that the program may have reached all the women in their area (population 20,000) who were interested in the program. With continued funding, however, the program would probably have attracted new students. It was unique in the province of British Columbia and had the potential to serve women not only in the Powell River area, but also throughout the province.

Staff at the College believe that programs like this one have an increasing chance of providing assistance to women. They have found that, as more women enter non-traditional areas, and as acceptance of women's presence in the labour force generally grows, the number of individual women who enter and finish programs in areas like general mechanics is increasing.

Clearly, these two programs, one of which has barely started and the other which is no longer running, do not by themselves mean that women's situation with respect to apprenticeships is undergoing major changes. What they do demonstrate is that movement is possible in what has proved historically to be a particularly difficult area for women.

4.3.3 Training in High Quality Non-traditional Jobs:

The pathway to all high quality non-traditional work is not necessarily through apprenticeships. We found a number of programs which are assisting women to gain access to work in non-traditional areas without necessarily involving them in apprenticeships. Although Toronto's buoyant economy seems to provide particularly fertile ground for such efforts, one of the most interesting programs operates in British Columbia, through Kwantlen College, in Surrey.

The Employable Alternatives for Women Program has been in operation since January 1981. The program was designed as a bridging program, focusing in particular on assisting women to identify what occupations are available and best suited for them. The program is designed: to develop self esteem among the women involved; to provide them with the opportunity to succeed; and to assist them to gather and make active use of information that they would not normally have access to. The program's specific goals are to assist women to make realistic career decisions for themselves and develop an action plan for pursuing their chosen careers.

Over the 16 weeks of the program, the 20 women explore a wide variety of non-traditional occupations, involving themselves in at least 3 different field experiences. The program has two components in the classroom -- one involving classes in subjects like computer orientation, survival, first aid, and self-defence. The second involves less technical areas like assertiveness training and developing self-esteem. Academic and skills assessments are done early in the program. The women range in age from 18 to 55 with half falling in the 25 to 35 age group. Several of the women are native people, and many are immigrants.