Equal Opportunities Commission Investigation into Occupational Segregation and Apprenticeships
TUC Organisation and Services Department
January 2005
Introduction
The EOC General Formal Investigation into occupational segregation between men and women in training and work commenced in June 2003. It is focusing on five sectors - construction, engineering, plumbing, ICT and childcare and in particular the issues surrounding Apprenticeships.
The EOC released the Phase 1 report on 5 May 2004. The aim of the first phase was to develop an overview, and to set out initial findings and recommendations. This identified a number of recommendations that focused around measures to remove the barriers for young people making non-traditional choices. The second phase is gathering further evidence on barriers and developing solutions in policy and practice, and is expected to report in late February 2005. P hase 3 will i dentify good practice, a blueprint for change and involve dissemination of the GFI findings and recommendations.
Jeannie Drake, TUC President and Deputy General Secretary of the CWU is the chair of the Advisory Board, and Frances O’Grady is a member of the Advisory Board. The TUC convened a meeting of representatives of the Women’s Committee in July 2004 to consider the issues arising out of the interim report. Following this meeting, and in response to a survey being conducted by the EOC, many of the issues raised where included in a letter from Brendan Barber to Julie Mellor, Chair of the Equal Opportunities Commission. The main points raised are discussed later in this briefing.
Initial Findings
The issues outlined in the first phase of the GFI included:
· That occupational segregation contributes to skills shortages and the gender pay gap, and that these problems are reinforced by high levels of occupational segregation among apprentices;
· There are many initiatives that aim to address this issue, but these are insufficiently joined up and sustained;
· There is a lack of apprenticeship places, and therefore no incentive to recruit outside traditional pool;
· Workplace culture and poor sector image can be a barrier to recruitment;
· Apprenticeships are inflexible for women with children;
· Pay in childcare (which employs 99% women) is less than half of other areas;
· Careers advice often reinforces occupational segregation.
EOC research conducted during the investigation has found that at 14-16 , young women are at their most open minded about career choices. Further, 67% of women did not receive information about pay when making career choices - and 67% said they would have made a different choice.
Initial Recommendations
The two key initial recommendations were: first, that a National Strategy be developed, driven by high-level alliance across government, including incentives for levering change. Second, that an overhaul of Apprenticeship should include actions that address systemic barriers in the frameworks for atypical recruits. One of the recommendations was that the exemption of apprentices from the national minimum wage be removed. The interim report preceded the Government’s re-launch of Modern Apprenticeships on 10 May 2004. The interim report identified a number of areas, some of which were picked up in the re-launch.
Tackling Occupational Segregation - The Union Role
One recommendation particularly relevant for the union movement was that the TUC, CBI and Federation of Small Business - ‘promote the reduction of occupational segregation, both as an equality and productivity issue’. T he TUC has outlined to the EOC that there are many ways in which trade unions already contribute to challenging this problem in the labour market, for example through collective bargaining and representation in the workplace.
However, at the same time, the TUC acknowledged that there is much more to be done. The recent launch of a joint TUC/Learning and Skills Council booklet entitled ‘Apprenticeships: A guide for Union reps and negotiators’ forms a part of TUC efforts to boost the union role with regard to apprentices. The booklet makes specific reference to encouraging employers to take on non-traditional recruits, and emphasizes that unions can support apprentices, particularly non-traditional apprentices, by negotiating learning agreements. Following the launch at Congress 2004, the booklet is being launched in each TUC region in England.
Key issues raised by the TUC
Schools and Colleges
The TUC has raised the need to challenge gender stereotyping in schools and colleges, including in careers advice, and the need to work with parents, careers services and Connexions services to address this issue.
Funding arrangements for the Connexions service that focus attention on young people not in employment, education and training mean that there is currently limited ability for Connexions to incorporate an agenda to challenge gender segregation. The TUC has expressed the hope that the GFI will press this issue.
The TUC has argued that the final report of the Tomlinson Working Group on reform of 14-19 curriculum and qualifications provides an important opportunity to challenge gender segregation. The TUC has encouraged the EOC to assess the recommendations of the Tomlinson Report in relation to stereotyping and occupational segregation, and depending on the outcome of such an assessment, lobby Government on this issue. Following a request from the TUC Executive Committee, a letter from Brendan Barber was sent directly to the Secretary of State for Education and Skills on this issue.
Equal Value
The TUC has highlighted that the question of how work is valued in occupations where women predominate must be specifically explored in the GFI. Within the current remit of the GFI, the TUC believes that the childcare sector provides an ideal opportunity to highlight this.
As workers in the childcare industry receive very low pay, both as apprentices and throughout their careers, this raises problems in recruitment and retention of childcare workers (especially of men). It also offers an example of the low value that is attached to the skills of childcare workers. Many of the skills associated with the profession are viewed as ‘innate’ and therefore do not receive a monetary value in the labour market. The childcare sector is one of many where this problem occurs, and the TUC has highlighted that the GFI offers an ideal opportunity to challenge it.
In suggesting this, the TUC recognises that proposing solutions around increasing wages for the childcare sector is complicated, as affordable childcare is a key factor in whether women return to work, and the types of jobs they do. The lack of childcare for shift workers and those who work ‘atypical’ hours also causes many problems for working parents. Drawing on international examples, and the views of those with expertise in the childcare field, the TUC has suggested the EOC could consider innovative solutions in seeking to address the problems in marrying up affordable childcare with the wages of childcare workers.
Procurement
The TUC has raised with the EOC the importance of emphasising the role of Government in its final recommendations. Government has a key role not only in establishing equality as a key policy objective but also in leading by example both as an employer and as a purchaser. There is enormous potential for the Government to use its considerable purchasing power (for example as the biggest single buyer in the construction industry) to support government policy. The TUC has argued t here is significant potential for this to occur at national level, but also at local level through local authorities.
Sector Skills Councils
Sector Skills Councils will play an increasingly important role in Apprenticeships and wider skills issues. In this context, the TUC has advocated that it is crucial Sector Skills Councils take a leading role in addressing occupational segregation. In particular, Sector Skills Agreements provide an important mechanism through which to lever employer commitment to challenging occupational segregation, including via Apprenticeships. The TUC argued it is particularly important to act quickly in terms of the Pathfinder Agreements, which will form important precedents.
Workplace Culture
The TUC has emphasised the importance of workplace culture as a barrier to young people in non-traditional areas of employment. There are few examples where there is a critical mass of either girls or boys in Apprenticeships in areas where they do not traditionally dominate.
The TUC has stressed that unions can play an important part in improving workplace culture. For example, promoting ULRs can have a positive impact as they can play a crucial role in tackling hostile workplace cultures and positively improving completion rates where they have taken on a role as mentor or coach, particularly in respect of ‘non-traditional’ apprentices.
Incentives
The TUC supported suggestions in the interim report that incentives be considered, and reiterated that this approach should also contain responsibilities. For example, additional funding could be made available for employers who can demonstrate that they use it to make positive adjustments to workplace culture. While many large organisations will have their own equality and diversity policies, one area of work could be to assist small employers in developing policies if they take on an apprentice in a non-traditional area.
Paid Time off
The TUC has highlighted research that identifies time as the biggest barrier to learning (OECD 2003). Time off for training is a particularly big barrier for women trying to balance work and family commitments. The Employer Training Pilots currently being trialled by the Government in one third of local Learning and Skills Councils thus far are very successful in engaging learners, particularly older women. The ETP package involves free training up to level 2, which is tailored to the workplace, and employers receive a subsidy for employees to access paid time off to train. Therefore this represents a significant step forward for women in accessing training. The TUC supports the extension of some form of ETP nationally, and is also lobbying for paid time off to train for all workers, particularly up to level 2.
Non-standard employment
The TUC has also raised the issue of part-time and agency workers who get very little access to training. Increasingly flexible labour markets means non-standard forms of employment are widely taken up. Facilitating access to training for these groups of workers has an important gender dimension: 45% of women in employment work part-time, around half of agency workers are women and there is a significant wage penalty attached to part time work. While the focus of the GFI is on apprenticeships, the TUC has argued it is important to raise some of these broader issues in the recommendations.
Next steps
The focus of the second phase has been to delve more deeply into the issues preventing women and men from taking up non-traditional careers, as well as attitudes and barriers of employers to taking on non-traditional recruits. The GFI is expected to publish its final recommendations at the end of February 2005.
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