Platform 51

News

Categories: education and skills, equality, jobs and work, press releases
Thursday, 7 February 2008
Apprenticeships: Now make them work for girls

The new apprenticeship strategy announced by the Government is a huge step forward in providing young people with the path to a decent job. YWCA was pleased to see that many of the things we pointed out to the Government  (as told to us by girls and women) have been considered:

• It has acknowledged how many young women find themselves in poorly-paid apprenticeships and wants to tackle this;
• It has proposed a pilot scheme to help tackle the entrenched problems of gender segregation in certain job sectors;
• In job sectors which have traditionally been dominated by men, YWCA's recommendation is that femal apprentices entering male dominated sectors need support from 'mentors' is reflected.

The strategy also recognises that schoolchildren need information about the different pay rates, working conditions and expectation for different jobs and careers. Once again, this is something we have been calling for.

YWCA welcomes the fact that apprenticeship pay will be looked at in the strategy. However, with many young women still struggling on low apprenticeship wages we are appealing to the Government to set apprenticeship pay at the equivalent of the National Minimum Wage.

The challenge is for this ambitious plan to be fully implemented and YWCA will be following the evolution closely to ensure that it becomes a meaningful option for disadvantaged young women to avoid a lifetime of hardship in poorly paid jobs with no prospects

Sally Copley, director of policy, research and campaigns at YWCA said: "Apprenticeships are clearly an important doorway for young people into a job with future prospects. However there is still an inherent gender injustice that we hope will be genuinely addressed through this plan. The highest paid apprenticeship is in the electro technical field, and is exclusively male. It pays double that of the lowest paid, hairdressing, which is dominated by women. That just cannot be right."

For more information read our briefings and information sheets on jobs and training.