The federal budget – investing in women in trades

The federal budget is off to a good start when it comes to access to training/skills for girls and women however they need to be practical in the rollout or they'll fail to engage and retain girls/women in trades. Our Founding Director, Amanda Rose, shared her ideas and solutions with News Ltd based on a decade of experience working with girls and women in this space.

Small Business Women Australia founder and vocational education and training advocate Amanda Rose called for the introduction of single-sex apprenticeship classes for high school girls.

“(We should) have male and female TAFE classes, say, for carpentry,” she said. (They need a) learning environment where they feel a bit safe and a bit comfortable with each other, then co-ed with projects ... throwing them all in at 16, 17, 18, the girls withdraw.

We need to look at the barriers of why women aren’t taking up these types of trades.”

Ms Rose also called for more mentoring programs in the construction industry to encourage women’s participation just like our Future is Bright and Licence to Build programs developed by Western Sydney Women.

“We are getting a few women interested in that space but it’s quite tough,” she said.

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