The big divide
Wednesday 24 August 2005
We all know that boys and girls have their basic differences, but it's in the workplace that real divides are beginning to show themselves.
A new study says that even though sexual equality has improved over the last few years, young people are still choosing careers that relate to traditional roles of men and women.
The pressure's on
Family pressures and the fear of ribbing from mates can mean that boys and girls are staying away from some sectors where there are few members of the opposite sex employed.
Apprenticeships are a scheme introduced by the government a few years ago to help people who wanted to get on the career ladder but still weren't ready to leave learning behind. The scheme has been very successful and thousands of young people complete the programme every year.
Branching out
New research has shown, however, that boys and girls aren't branching out into the more non-traditional job areas.
For example, the study found that if a boy takes a job in childcare, he is four times more likely to worry about being teased by mates than a girl who decides to work on a building site.
Recent figures say that girls made up 2.1 per cent of building Apprentices, 2.7 per cent of engineering and manufacturing Apprentices, 14.3 per cent in IT and a tiny 1.1 per cent of plumbing apprentices. In childcare, a massive 97.5 per cent of the Apprentices taking part were girls.
Breaking tradition
According to research carried out by Leicester University as part of the work of the Equal Opportunities Commission, 80 per cent of girls and 55 per cent of boys would be willing to learn a non-traditional job. Eighty-one per cent and 58 per cent of boys said that either sex would be good at plumbing.
When it comes to the way boys and girls think about their careers, more than three quarters of girls liked the idea of trying out a job for a while before deciding whether to follow that particular career path. Seventy per cent would only be interested in jobs that offered the possibility of promotion and advancement.
Boys looked at things from a cash angle, and two thirds of guys who took part in the survey reckoned better pay rates and money to do training would attract them to a particular job.
Hit the myth
One myth that cropped us as part of the research was that three quarters of boys and girls thought that only people who don't get good enough GCSEs to stay on decide to do an Apprenticeship.
In fact, although doing A-levels is the most popular way of studying further, doing an Apprenticeship is an alternative route to learning for people who would like to build up their work experience and earn a wage, with young people of all abilities taking part.
