THE QUESTIONNAIRE SURVEY

Recruitment to WITT courses was found to be either through a Canada Employment Counsellor or through advertising, one or the other in different provinces. Women's reasons for participating varied: 75% were looking for a career change, had an interest in a trade, or wanted to know what other options were out there. To our surprise, because the figure is high for a training course, 46% of the respondents were employed before they took the course and only 25% were taking it to find employment. Women who were not in the labour force or who were unemployed were more likely to state "finding employment" as their reason for taking the course. Women who ended up in traditional jobs said they had taken the course also to look for employment whereas the women who had taken the course to research a career change or to find out about non-traditional jobs ended up in operational, professional and technical work.

Although only 46% of the women were employed before they took the course, 63% were employed at the time of the survey. Twenty-five percent had not been in the labour force before the course and only 10% were not in the labour force after; 17% had been unemployed and only 10% were unemployed after. There was a much higher number of women involved in training after the course and of those women who had been on social assistance, only a quarter still received such aid.

Of the 63% of respondents who were employed, 55% were working in traditional jobs and 45% were working in trades and technology areas. Almost all of the employed respondents, especially those who went on to further training, credited the WITT course for their motivation and continued progress. The course rated very high for facilitating career exploration and for instilling confidence, even though it may not have led directly to employment. This seemed to be true whether the women had found work in traditional or non-traditional areas.

The course was also rated high for giving the women confidence and assertiveness, and it is interesting to note what respondents felt was the source of these new qualities. They didn't come from the "assertiveness training" part of the course but instead from touching tools and from the hands-on, feeling-comfortable-and-confident-with-tools section of the course. The trades related part rated higher than anything else.

As an overall employment program, the course excelled in its mandate which was to expose women to a variety of options and leave the choice up to them. If women are exposed to a career exploration at the end of which some choose to go back to what they were doing before or to a job in a traditional area, the exploration has still been worthwhile. The women are making informed career choices.