Young women are missing out on apprenticeship opportunities and will continue to do so unless action is taken, claims Young Women’s Trust.
To mark National Apprenticeship Week, the charity are calling on more to be done to encourage girls and young women to consider and enrol in apprenticeships.
A report, entitled Making Apprenticeships Work for Young Women and released by Young Women’s Trust, highlights that a gender pay gap and inequality are ever present throughout apprenticeships. It was found that male apprentices get paid 21 per cent more per hour than women, making women worse off by more than £2000 per year. Women also face fewer opportunities with statistics showing that there are 25 men to every women starting apprenticeships in engineering and 74 men to every woman in plumbing.
Support for those who have already completed an apprenticeship is also something the charity is keen to highlight and change. According to the report, women are more than twice as likely to be out of work at the end of their course and 16 per cent of women said they were out of work after completing an apprenticeship, compared to just 6 per cent of men.
Young Women’s Trust are calling for ‘positive action’ to increase diversity across apprenticeship courses; an increase in financial support and wages; an increase in part-time and flexible apprenticeships; and an increase in support throughout the duration of a course.
Speaking of the report, Chief Executive of Young Women’s Trust, Dr Carole Easton said, “I welcome the Government’s commitment to substantially increase the number of apprenticeships for young people. I very much hope that everyone, particularly employers and the Government, will now take the action Young Women’s Trust recommends to ensure the gender gap in apprenticeships soon becomes a thing of the past.”
Young Women’s Trust supports and represents women aged between 16 to 30 struggling to live on low or no pay in England and Wales and who are at risk of being trapped in poverty. For more information about the charity, visit their website here.
You can download the full report here.
