Women's participation in publicly-funded training has been influenced considerably by the implementation of the National Training Act of 1979/1982. The NTA has placed priority on technical and high level trade skills and has directed funding for training into those areas through either institutional or industrial training. A recent CCLOW report, The National Training Act: It's Impact on Women, has noted that both the number of women trainees and the proportion of women trainees have declined in all areas of institutional training since the implementation of this Act. Nationally the participation rate for women trainees in this area declined from 29.1% in 1981-82 to 25.7% in 1982-83. In industrial training, the participation of women declined from 27.1% to 22.7% over the same time period.

The situation in Nova Scotia is not greatly different from the national scene. The participation rates for 1981-82 and 1982-83 show a decline in women's participation in all forms of publicly-funded training, with the exception of apprenticeship programs which showed a dubious growth from 1.4% to 1.8% of enrolments.

A more detailed examination of enrolment figures for Nova Scotia in September 1984 points out the discrepancies and inequities which currently operate in the provision of publicly-funded training in this province.

A third more men than women are enrolled in these training programs. Actual figures are 967 women and 1406 men. There are as many men enrolled in trades skills as there are total female enrolments in all areas. Women's enrolments comprise 41% of total enrolments, not substantially different from the proportion of women in the labour force.

It is in the distribution of these female enrolments that concerns arise. Nearly half of all women participating in CEIC- funded training are enrolled in pre-skill courses such as Basic Training for Skill Development, Career Exploration for Women, Introduction to Trades, and Pre- Technology for Women. These are all valuable courses and they make an important contribution to the transition of women into the workplace. There are two major problems arising out of the fact that 47% of women trainees participate in these courses. One is that women are over-represented in these courses providing pre-employment skills. Women comprise 70% of pre-skill enrolments. While not all of these pre-skill courses provide academic skills, many have this as a major component.

It is therefore relevant to observe that in Nova Scotia only 19% of women have a literacy problem as compared with 25% of males (MacDonald, 1983).

The other serious problem is that these pre-skill courses do not provide training in skills for the labour market, so that upon completion the trainee is still lacking in skills market- able to a specific employer. Additionally, these courses are the least expensive to implement since they do not require the specialized equipment and space necessary to many of the trades and technologies.

Wendy Wortsman