On Privatization:

The central concern here is that what is in the best interests of employers may not be in the best interests of trainees.

The shift to increased emphasis on privatized training by governments is a new one. There is very little data available on which to base an analysis. As a result, we were able to identify but not to confirm several potential trends of interest. We found, for instance, that a relatively small number of employers have sponsored programs in such critical areas as literacy, English as a second language and training in emerging technologies. If the new emphasis in public policy results in a more productive public-private training partnership and in more and better training for workers, then the new situation may well be an improvement over the old one. However, the "if" in the above proposition is a big one and will need to monitored carefully.

Unfortunately, employer-sponsored training does nothing to assist those who have no workplace, or who work in jobs which are unlikely to receive training. For those women, the major source of assistance is the Canadian Jobs Strategy's Re-Entry and Job Development programs. Unfortunately, current funding criteria for program sponsors provide no clear way to distinguish between those who are able to offer a high quality program and those who are not. Federal resources for women's training are too scarce to be squandered on poor quality programs, or on programs training for jobs which offer to women only marginal improvements in their position within the labour market. Changes to the proposal process and to the structure and content of programs are necessary in order to address this problem.

It is inappropriate to blur the distinction between the private sector of business and industry and the non-profit sector of voluntary organizations, as is currently happening. Our research suggests that there is an important role for non-profit organizations in providing basic education and generic 'learning to learn' skills, while private sector groups appear to be best suited to job-specific technical training. The two are clearly complementary. However, unless this distinction can be made, we risk having here in Canada the situation which occurs in Britain and the United States; where voluntary and public sector educational organizations compete directly with private sector groups for funds. Frequently, in that situation, the long-term educational needs of the trainees are lost in the race to show competency in meeting the immediate needs of the marketplace.

On Outcomes:

CCLOW's primary concern must be whether or not any particular women's job-related training program does result in an increased range of high-quality occupational choices for the individuals involved. Although policies support in principle the idea that the outcomes of training ought to be the ending of occupational segregation for women and the narrowing of the wage gap between men and women, practices do not appear to be explicitly oriented in that direction.

Of central importance here is the idea that training and education is necessary but not sufficient to create the economic changes which are needed for women. In order for women's training programs to have the desired impact, they must represent one element in a whole constellation of related initiatives in each of the three critical areas of equal pay for work of equal value; desegregating the occupational structure of women's work; and restructuring work and family life so that fulfillment in one area of the economy formal or informal does not mean sacrificing personal and societal expectations in the other.

Looking to the Future

During our research, we conducted 25 indepth interviews. Among the questions asked were some that dealt with visions of an ideal future. Our respondents described a world characterized by choice for women across all activities within both formal and informal economic worlds; by empowerment of women in all areas of life; by visibility for women in the full spectrum of social, economic and political activities; and by a different set of values nurturance, mutuality, and peaceful co- existence as opposed to competition, 'otherness' and dominance.