Young women are missing out at every stage of apprenticeships and will continue to do so unless urgent action is taken by employers and Government, warns a new report from the Young Women’s Trust (.pdf).
Although more women are now entering into apprenticeships than men, the charity finds that they are paid less than their male counterparts and less likely to go on to gain employment.
This, the report finds, is largely due to women still being woefully under-represented within male-dominated sectors, which tend to be better paid and have better career prospects.
The report, Making Apprenticeships Work for Young Women finds that extreme gender segregation remains a major problem: for every female apprentice working within engineering, there are 25 male apprentices; in the construction industry, there are 56 men to every woman and in Plumbing, a staggering 74 men to every woman.
Young Women’s Trust, which supports and represents young women struggling to live on low or no pay, warns that unless this entrenched gender imbalance is addressed, the UK may be unable to meet the demand for skilled workers in sectors including engineering, where there is a serious shortage.
In addition to being locked out of certain careers, the charity also reports that young female apprentices are more likely to achieve poorer outcomes than their male peers:
- Young women apprentices receive less pay than men - £4.82 an hour compared to £5.85 for men, making women on average £2,000 worse off a year.
- Young women apprentices report receiving less training than men - 23% of women received no training compared to 12% of men.
- 65% of young women apprentices are concentrated in just five sectors, whereas the same percentage of young men apprentices work in double the number of sectors, giving male apprentices greater career options.
- 16% of women apprentices have said they were out of work following their apprenticeship, compared to just 6% of men.
Making Apprenticeships Work for Young Women makes a number of recommendations to employers and the Government including:
- Positive Action - introducing diversity action plans and measures from employers which actively encourage the recruitment and retention of young women, including setting targets to increase the participation of women in targeted sectors, reserving places on training courses for women, mentoring schemes and reviewing language used in recruitment advertising to make more “female friendly”.
- The collecting and publishing of Apprenticeships data by employers including by gender to increase transparency and accountability.
- Greater availability of flexible and part-time apprenticeships to allow for caring and other responsibilities, with renewed guidance from Government for employers on this.
- Increased pay and financial support for apprentices including childcare provision, on the same basis as other workers and the introduction of a single National Minimum Wage for all age groups regardless of apprenticeships status.
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