Women who find out about trades training are systematically discouraged from registering for such courses by C.E.I.C. counsellors. Between January 1981 and January 1983. we referred 41 women for specific trades courses in which there was supposedly priority given to women. In 29 cases we were obliged to intervene directly in order to assure that the women be registered. In 2 cases. counsellors did not know of the existence of such a policy, in 2 others they insisted that women must undergo aptitude testing before being allowed access to trades training. In another case a woman was told that she had no right to a retraining course because she had been absent from the labour-market for five years in order to be with her young children.

Several individual women managed to pressure counsellors without our help, but reported back to us that there had been considerable scepticism about their career choices.

While undergoing retraining, trainees are required to remain on U.I.C. if they are eligible. Since women earn on the average 60% of what men earn, they are less likely to be able to undertake extended training because their U.I.C. payments are insufficient. Moreover, 25% of women work part-time and are either not eligible for U.I.C. or receive cheques which are clearly inadequate. One women who held a part-time job previous to beginning a welding course was obliged to apply for U.I.C. and received $55.00 per week- $15.00 less than the training allowance which U.I.C. pays to trainees who are not receiving U.I.C. Obviously such a policy of requiring trainees to remain on U.I.C. even when these payments are inferior to the training allowances has an adverse impact of women's participation in retraining programs.

The majority of trades courses are offered at night from 4 p.m. to 10 p.m. The impact on women who have family responsibilities is obvious especially in the case of women who head families, C.E.I.C. statistics indicate that 4 times as many women as men trainees are likely to be divorced or separated. Courses offered at night when schools and daycares are closed are inaccessible to women who have children given that C.E.I.C. offers only $20.00 per week in childcare for the first child and $15.00 for each subsequent child. Many women who have been interested in trade training have been deterred by the impossibility of finding reliable child care (including suppers) for $20.00 for 40 hours a week.

This is one of the main reasons why A.T.F. requested that a welding course be offered for women at Centre Parathenais during the day when childcare is easier to arrange and schools and daycare centres are open.

When A.T.F. submitted its complaint against the Commission last summer, the specific incident involved a refusal to establish a welding course for women, 4 of whom are single mothers who have young children. In order to make this course accessible we requested that it be given at the Centre Parathenais which is readily accessible by public transportation and during the day. We also wanted a group of women to be together in order to provide mutual support 80 that they would not be isolated in a male milieu and therefore susceptible to harassment.



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