Getting women into non-traditional and better-paid jobs

Today, Baroness Margaret Prosser will speak at a unionlearn and Skills for Business seminar entitled Women into Better-paid Work: The Sector Skills Approach. The seminar will be held in the Council Chamber at the TUC and will look at the success of nine Sector Skills Councils (SSCs) in piloting innovative ways to enable women to access non-traditional jobs. The event will bring together trade unions, SSCs and leading equality campaigners such as Sarah Veale, Head of Equality and Equal Rights at the TUC, Anne Madden from the Equality and Human Rights Commission, and Fiona Mortimer, Sector Skills Development Agency Project Manager of the Women and Work Sector Pathways Initiative.

The event will focus on how successful the SSCs have been in engaging with employers to address the barriers faced by women seeking to get in and get on in non-traditional roles across a wide range of industries and how they can work together with trade unions. Participants will have an opportunity to ëspeed-meetí representatives of the SSCs during the event, which is aimed at all trade union officers with an interest in womenís equality and/or training.

Liz Smith, unionlearn Director said: ìAn essential part of the trade union role is to improve opportunities to improve the life chances of our members. The Women and Work Commission showed that many women are still relegated to poorly-paid jobs because of gender expectations and occupational segregation. Unionlearn is working with unions, and Sector Skills Councils to ensure that women can get training for the jobs they want to do, not just those employers think they can do. This event will build on the excellent work that the TUC and trade unions are doing to ensure gender equality in the workplace.î

Fiona Mortimer, Women & Work Project Manager said: ìThe industries engaged in this project offer a wealth of diverse and interesting careers. However, gender stereotypes have meant that women have often been deterred from considering them. This initiative aims to begin to redress the gender divide by engaging employers in the development of women within their companies, and encouraging the recruitment of more women into non-traditional roles. The unions, particularly Union Learning Representatives, have a key role to play in encouraging women to participate in the project and supporting them in achieving their career goals.î