Identifying Gender Bias in Spending Allocations: the case of Scottish Modern Apprenticeships Emily Thomson Economic Studies and International Business Glasgow Caledonian University –

page 2 Modern Apprenticeships Publicly funded training programme Target group is 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 sectors – childcare (EYC&E), ICT, construction, engineering and plumbing Occupational segregation found to be severe page 4

Female Participation page 5

Occupational Segregation 1 page 6 Occupation% female 2005 % female 2010 % change Construction0.7%1.6%+0.9% Early Years Care and Education 98.5%97.9%-0.6% Engineering2.4%2.6%+0.2% Plumbing0.4%0.9%+0.5% ICT49.7%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 page 7

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 page 8

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) page 9

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 page 10

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 ( years) Construction years £7500, 20+ years £3500 page 11

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 Draft Budget ,000 Modern Apprenticeships in page 12

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 page 13

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??? page 14

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 Fong B and A Phelps (2008) ‘Apprenticeship Pay: 2007 Survey of Earnings by Sector’ DUIS Research Report 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 page 15