Training scheme fails 'half' population

By MATHEW DEARNALEY

The Government's employment equity watchdog is snarling at low participation by women in its flagship youth training programme.

Equal Employment Opportunities Commissioner Dr Judy McGregor says a 6.6 per cent female participation rate is rendering the otherwise successful and heavily funded Modern Apprenticeships scheme unfair and inequitable.

In a Human Rights Commission discussion paper out today, Dr McGregor and Massey University researcher Lance Gray say the scheme has been well received by the public and generated strong demand by employers for apprentices.

But they say equity issues must be addressed for it to be taken seriously as a "modern" initiative, and that it also covers too few Maori and Pacific youngsters.

"There needs to be political acceptance that recruiting from only 'half' the population will not serve New Zealand well in the future," they say, noting that this country has ratified an International Labour Organisation convention promoting equal access to training.

The scheme, which began 2 1/2 years ago, pays training co-ordinators to shield employers from administrative responsibilities in their recruitment of youngsters mainly aged from 16 to 21.

With a $92.5 million budget over four years, it has 6100 apprentices and is still growing. But at the end of June, its 381 women made up just 6.6 per cent of a total of 5739.

Although a 14.3 per cent participation rate for Maori reflected national population statistics, women accounted for just 9 per cent of the 819 Maori apprentices.

The Government has tried to lessen the gender imbalance by expanding the scheme's scope to more "female-friendly" fields such as hospitality, tourism, retailing and office administration.

As the number of trades grew to 28, the proportion of women participants edged up from an even more dire 5 per cent in June last year.

But the United National Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women has in a separate report suggested this may merely reinforce stereotypical gender roles rather than changing attitudes at the root of the problem.

It asked whether the Government had considered trying to make sectors targeted by apprenticeship co-ordinators appeal more to women.

Dr McGregor told the Herald yesterday that she welcomed industries such as hospitality in the scheme but was worried about women in low-paid occupations with limited career advancement prospects.

"It is not that we don't think it is a great scheme, but just that it should have been designed to acknowledge these problems," she said.

"Women deserve a fair go at being modern apprentices if they want it."

Her report says Education Ministry figures showing more women than men in formal tertiary education does not hide the fact that females are "grossly under-represented" in industry training.

It is unimpressed by a quoted suggestion of the Tertiary Education Commission that women have simply made intelligent education decisions.

"The implication with this is that it suggests the primarily male Modern Apprentices have made poor decisions," it says. "This line of argument is exactly what the Industry Training Federation does not want to encourage because they want young people, male and female, to see Modern Apprenticeships as something to aspire to ... "

Tertiary Education and Employment Minister Steve Maharey accepted last night that the report would "put the onus on us" to encourage more female participation, but he believed this would happen as the scheme grew.

The Modern Apprenticeships scheme



* Launched July 2001 as the Government's flagship youth training programme.

* Aimed mainly, but not exclusively, at youngsters aged 16 to 21.

* Co-ordinators paid by the Government to recruit, place and mentor apprentices, sometimes cycling them through several workplaces to broaden their experience.