There are seven immediate requirements:

1. A critical area for enhancing access and participation for women is in the strengthening of information and counseling services, especially at the Canada Employment Centres which act as the referral mechanism for training, and also at the training institutions themselves. The brief of the N.S. Advisory Council on the Status of Women to the Royal Commission in Post-Secondary Education, Equality of Educational Opportunity, recommended that personnel hired for vocational counseling within these organizations "have expertise in counseling women who are studying in non-traditional areas" (MacDonald and Nyenhuis, p.XI).
   
   
2. Within the delivery of training programs, greater flexibility in design and methodology of instruction (not to be construed as meaning course content) would promote women's participation. An excellent model for such an approach is the Bridging Program developed by CCLOW. This approach strengthens the transition from pre-skill and orientation courses into a wider range of training related to job opportunities.
   
   
3. The Report of the Commission on Equality (p. 263) recommends:
   
   POST-SECONDARY INSTITUTIONS AND TRAINING PROGRAMS MANDATED TO RESPOND DIRECTLY TO THE NEEDS OF THE LABOUR MARKET SHOULD BE REQUIRED TO TAKE MEASURES TO INCREASE THE PARTICIPATION OF MEMBERS OF THE DESIGNATED GROUPS IN THE RELEVANT VOCATIONAL TRAINING COURSES AND PROGRAMS.
   
   
4. Women need to be promoted and appointed to senior policy positions within both federal and provincial agencies responsible for the delivery of training, so that the concerns of women will be adequately represented.
   
   
5. A policy of paid skill development leave implemented in conjunction with affirmative action can enable women to obtain badly needed opportunities for career development to move out of the job ghettoes and into more fulfilling, better paid jobs.
   
   
6. Women's Unemployment Insurance benefits for training need to be augmented with training allowances since women's low wages result in an extremely low rate of U.I. benefits, often necessitating women's exclusion and/or withdrawal from training.
   
   
7. The range of publicly-funded training programs needs to be broadened and balanced to include training in traditional areas of women's expertise such as organizational administration, human resource development, and social services / helping skills.

It is simplistic to suggest that if only women would take the appropriate training, their problems in employment would disappear. Throughout the years, women's employment has been condemned to marginality, as a reserve labour pool to be called on to replace men in times of shortages or to be used as a factor to put constraints upon wage levels.

Training is a component in the attainment of equality, but there can be no equality until women and the work they perform cease to be devalued.

It is through co-operative approaches to training with clearly identified transitions and bridging programs that the barriers to self-sufficiency can be overcome. The elements of this cooperation are the coordination of funding sources, support services, delivery systems for the various training programs and relevant work experience. Co-operation breaks down the competitive approach which creates losers and winners, and replaces it with a mutuality where resources are used inter-dependently for the benefit of all. A cooperative model enhances self-sufficiency and equality.

EVEN IF WOMEN DO CONSIDERABLY INCREASE THEIR ACCESS TO THE OPPORTUNITIES PREVIOUSLY MONOPOLIZED BY MEN IN SYSTEMS OF EDUCATION CREATED AND CONTROLLED BY MEN, THIS WILL DO VERY LITTLE TO ALTER THE BASIC RELATIONS BETWEEN WOMEN AND MEN IN SOCIETY. IT IS NOT MERELY A QUESTION OF IMPROVING THE CHANCES OF WOMEN TO COMPETE IN A MAN'S WORLD …. BUT TO DEMAND A RADICAL CHANGE IN THE NATURE OF WHAT IS BEING OFFERED. THIS IMPLIES AT LEAST AN EQUAL SHARE IN THE CONTROL, AT LEAST AN EQUAL SHARE IN THE DETERMINATION OF WHAT COUNTS AS VALUABLE KNOWLEDGE WITHIN IT, AND AT LEAST AN EQUAL RECOGNITION THAT WHAT IS IMPORTANT ABOUT WOMEN'S EXPERIENCE OF THE WORLD IS AS VALID AS MEN'S. WITHOUT SUCH REAL EQUALITIES, NOTIONS OF EQUALITY OF OPPORTUNITY ARE ESSENTIALLY RHETORICAL. (THOMPSON, 1983)

Linda MacDonald has been involved in adult education for fifteen years in counseling, teaching and administration. As one of the two Career Planners at the Life Planning and Learning Centre of Mount Saint Vincent University, she provides one-to-one counseling for women seeking careers, new careers and career growth. She has recently been accepted for doctoral studies at Columbia University.