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Identifying Gender Bias in Spending Allocations: the case of Scottish Modern Apprenticeships
Emily Thomson
Economic Studies and International Business
Glasgow Caledonian University
Email – Emily.Thomson@gcu.ac.uk
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Modern Apprenticeships
• Publicly funded training programme
• Target group is 16-19 year olds
• SVQ/work based qualification
• Traditional and non-traditional frameworks
• Key labour market entry point
• ‘Flagship’ policy in intermediate skills
page 3
MA delivery/responsibilities
• Funding - Scottish Government/Skills Development Scotland (SDS set up in 2008)
• Marketing/promotion and development of frameworks – SDS/Sector Skills Councils
• Accreditation – Scottish Qualification Authority
• Delivery – Training providers/FE colleges/employers
• Public Sector Duties to promote equality
Gender and MAs
• SWBG 2002 – low participation of women and occupational segregation
• EOC launches UK Gender Formal Investigation (GFI) in September 2003
• GFI Scotland reports February 2005
• 5 sectors – childcare (EYC&E), ICT, construction, engineering and plumbing
• Occupational segregation found to be severe
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Female Participation
page 5
Occupational Segregation 1
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Occupation
% female 2005
% female 2010
% change
Construction 0.7% 1.6% +0.9%
Early Years Care and Education
98.5% 97.9% -0.6%
Engineering 2.4% 2.6% +0.2%
Plumbing 0.4% 0.9% +0.5%
ICT 49.7% 20.7% -29%
Occupational Segregation 2
Traditional versus non-traditional -
• McIntosh (2007) – average wage increase for construction MA 32%, retail MAs have no effect on wages (England)
• Walker and Zhu (2007) – men can expect an wage increase of just over 20%, women can expect just under 10%, after completion of MA
• Fong and Phelps (2008) – 21% gender pay gap in English apprenticeships
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GFI Recommendations
• Relevant data should be in the public domain
• Positive action on promoting industries to ‘a-typical’ candidates
• Actions to promote desegregation – collective responsibility of all stakeholders
• ‘Business case’ to be made by Local Enterprise Companies and Sector Skills Councils/Bodies
• NATIONAL STRATEGY
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Action?
• Scottish Executive set up Cross Directorate Occupational Segregation Working Group - no recommendations made on MAs
• SDS - Equality Impact Assessment of National Training Programmes November 2010
• Apprenticeship Summits 2009 (no mention of gender) and 2011 (v little discussion of gender)
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Equality Impact Assessment
• National Training Programmes: Equality Impact Assessment & Action Plan (November 2010)
• 3 equalities groups (BME, disabled, women)
• Literature review does not consider GFI although their consultation makes similar observations
• Key elements of strategy and action plan – employer engagement, workplace support and mentoring, promotion of NTPs and equalities training for providers, partners and SDS staff
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Resource Allocation
• In 2010 SDS spent £57.6m on MAs
• Research suggests gender bias in spending between traditional and non-traditional frameworks and between ‘young’ and ‘adult’ Modern Apprentices (Campbell et al 2009)
• Customer service £3000, engineering and gas £9000 (16 -19 years)
• Construction 16-19 years £7500, 20+ years £3500
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Funding Commitments
• Scottish Government suspends funding for adult MAs (new starts) from 2008 except in construction and engineering
• 'Adopt/Safeguard/Invest in An Apprentice'
• ‘Refreshed’ Skills Strategy 2010 – 20,000 new MAs (5000 all-age) to be funded in 2010-11
• Draft Budget 2010 - 25,000 Modern Apprenticeships in 2011-12
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Issues to consider...
• Methodology – Rake (2000) identifying the target group and beneficiaries??
• Lack of publically available data
• Economic context – recession, spending restraint
• Policy context - increasing numbers of apprentices but little emphasis on outcomes
• Accrediting existing skills is not value added, gender audit can help to address this
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Conclusions
• Modern Apprenticeships could be a force for positive change
• Large evidence base in terms of gender
• Lack of available data on funding and MA pay rates
• Example of policy where lack of action has meant investment of public funds biased towards men
• Alternative investment in women’s skills???
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References
Campbell J, Gillespie M, McKay A and Meikle A (2009) ‘Jobs for the Boys and the Girls: Promoting a Smart Successful Scotland three years on’, Scottish Affairs 66, Winter 2009.
Fong B and A Phelps (2008) ‘Apprenticeship Pay: 2007 Survey of Earnings by Sector’ DUIS Research Report 08 05
McIntosh S (2007) ‘A Cost Benefit Analysis of Apprenticeship and Other Vocational Qualifications’ DfES Research Report RR834
Rake, K (2000) ‘Into the mainstream? Why gender audit is an essential tool for policymakers’, New Economy, Vol. 7 No. 2
Walker, I and Y Zhu (2007) ‘The Labour Market Effects of Qualifications’ Glasgow: Futureskills Scotland
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