By 1988, federal government funding policies and client profile rules through CIS, and lack of provincial and college support, had all but eliminated these training programs in most provinces. Saskatchewan lost all WITT type programming; British Columbia went from thirteen to two programs; Nova Scotia only had programs for a very short time; and in Ontario the availability of programs was severely cut back where previously almost every college had offered two to three WITT programs per year.

At the same time, the Employment Equity Act and the Federal Contractors Program came into effect and pressure was put on industry to increase the representation of women in trades, technical, operations (TTO) and blue collar work (BCW). Employers complained they could not find qualified women to hire and EIC (the department responsible for ensuring the implementation of employment equity) was eliminating programs that provided the basic training for women to enter these fields. A national study of apprenticeship identified the low participation of women in apprenticeship training as a significant issue for our country (3).

In 1990, the Canadian Labour Market and Productivity Centre's National Task Force on Apprenticeship recommended that pre-trades training be provided in every college in the country (4), a recommendation that has only recently received limited endorsement from the National Apprenticeship Committee of the Canadian Labour Force Development Board. The province of Ontario, through its pilot Women's Access to Apprenticeship project, found that women's access to WITT exploratory courses must be ensured in order to prepare them for the technical work and variety of working environments they might encounter.

The WITT National Network came into force in 1988 as an education and advocacy organization dedicated to increasing the numbers and enhancing the experience of women training and working in TTO/BCW (5). The delivery of WITT courses was high on the group's agenda. It was clear from the "previous research and current experiences of members [of the Network] that the ad hoc nature of these courses was not adequately... preparing women to take on training and employment in trades, technology and operations occupations" (6). Course time frames, availability and content were still being defined at community colleges and Canada Employment Centres by available funding rather than by the needs of industry and of the women wanting appropriate and transferable training.

In response to this situation, the WITT Network decided to develop national standards and guidelines for the development and implementation of exploratory training programs. In 1992, the Network brought together a group of "experts" in the field to accomplish this task: a Dean of Trades from a New Brunswick community college, technicians, tradeswomen, technology- educators, WITT instructors, Industrial Training Consultants, equity consultants to industry, representatives from the Canadian Automotive Repair and Service Council and the Canadian Construction Association. Southern Alberta Institute of Technology, in Calgary, sponsored a two-day session in a modified DACUM process.

DACUM, or Developing a Curriculum, is a uniquely Canadian process used to develop occupational standards (7). Out of this workshop came the National Standards and Program Development Guidelines for WITT Exploratory Courses and Trade Technology Specific Courses for Women. The unanimity of this diverse group in developing these standards was surprising but indicates the strength of the consensus on the quality of and necessity for the guidelines.

1. For a more detailed discussion of this study, see "What Happened to the WITT Grads ?" Women's Education des femmes, vol.7 no.3, p.10.
2. While throughout this article I refer to the federal government department as EIC, it should be noted that this department has been re-named through recent re-organizations to Human Resources Development (HRD).
3. Marnie Mitchell & Nancy Thompson, Employment Equity in Apprenticeship: A Review of Programs in B. C. and Other Jurisdictions. Published by the Equity Sub-committee of the Canada/B.C. Joint Committee on Training.
4. Report of the Canadian Labour Market and Productivity Centre on the Labour Force Development Strategy. CLMPC: Ottawa, March 1990.
5. The WITT National Network was formed as a result of a unanimous decision at the "Surviving and Thriving" conference in Naramata, B.C., October 1988. A number of local WITT groups were working actively across the country prior to this event.
6. Taken from the cover letter introducing the WITT National Standards and Program Development Guidelines.
7. WITT developed and. used a modified version of the DACUM process, ensuring that non task-oriented skills, such as those to do with personal development and critical thinking, were incorporated. This modified process has been used by others interested in developing a more holistic curriculum and more inclusive occupational standards.
8. Marcy Cohen, Report to the Second Annual Consultation for the Women's Reference Group on Labour Market Issues. June, 1993.