YWCA Wolverhamton's young women don hard hats and get working

Young women from YWCA Wolverhampton tried their hand at building, carpentry and plumbing at the Women in Construction Day with Wolverhampton Homes.

The young women received training, spoke to other women working in construction and applied for employment and further training. Guest speaker Lynda Waltho MP gave a speech promoting the benefits of female representatives in the construction industry

One of the young women Jude Featherstone said: "I found the whole day really informative. I have an interest in plumbing so I was really excited to do the taster session. Today has given me the motivation and belief that I can learn a trade."

Pay increase for lowest paid apprentices

YWCA welcomes the announcement from the Trades Union Congress (TUC) that the lowest paid apprentices will get a pay boost from £80 to £95 a week.

The increase means that from Saturday 1st August 2009, apprentices will be paid at least £95 a week. 

Young women will particularly benefit from the increase as they are most likely to receive the minimum pay rate. According to latest Government figures, the average pay rate for female apprentices in hairdressing and childcare is less than £95 a week. The average weekly pay for apprentices is more than £170 a week.

YWCA's More Than One Rung campaign has called for apprentices to be paid the equivalent of the National Minimum Wage. The campaign also seeks to challenge gender stereotypes whereby young women are being steered into 'traditionally female' apprentices which tend to be lower paid. 

The single biggest employee volunteering event ever held in the Black Country took place today, with seven businesses using their talents to develop reading gardens, outdoor classrooms and promoting enterprise. Young women from YWCA Wolverhampton took part.

Sponsored nationally by law firm Eversheds LLP, Business in the Community's Give & Gain Day helped more than 2,500 people in the region learn new skills and break down barriers to learning and employment.

Businesses in the Black Country and surrounding areas, including AF Blakemore & Son, Birmingham Midshires, Royal Mail, The Midcounties Co-operative Ltd and the University of Wolverhampton, let more 120 employee volunteers swap their day jobs to take part in the groundbreaking initiative.

David Darlaston, Regional Director at Business in the Community Business in the Community, picked up the story:

"Even though we are in the midst of a major recession, we still managed to pull together a huge event and this goes to show the willingness of local businesses to maintain their CSR agenda and give something back to the communities in which they operate.

"It also highlights how important these volunteering programmes are to the companies involved, as it has been proven that taking part helps improve communication, teamwork, strengthens partnerships and creates a real pride in the organisation you work for."

He continued: "In the Black Country there is a real need to support schools to boost the literacy skills of young people and to help them understand what is needed to get jobs and be 'enterprising'.

Volunteers completed 8 Black Country projects on Give & Gain Day, including literacy fun at Hawbush Primary School and training in life and employability skills at YMCA/YWCA in Wolverhampton.

There were also outdoor reading and normal classrooms created (Croft Primary and Woden Primary), a major push on enterprise and financial literacy.

Paul Cowley, Corporate Affairs Manager, AF Blakemore & Son said: 

"Employee volunteering is a great way for employees to interact with colleagues they wouldn't normally work with, learn new skills they can use in their day job and develop an understanding of how their work influences the area around them.

"We are delighted to take part in a day that provides benefits for everyone involved". 

'Give & Gain Day' is taking place during Volunteers' Week', which is celebrating its 25the year. In total more than 4300 volunteers from 200 businesses participated in activities across 47 locations.

Wolverhampton Homes hold women in construction event

Wolverhampton Homes has hosted a Women In Construction event day to encourage more women into a trade.

The organisation and its Decent Homes partners - Bullock, Frank Haslam Milan and Thomas Vale - organised taster sessions in painting and decorating, plumbing and carpentry.

Women from YWCA and local schools and colleges attended to try out a trade, talk to other women working in construction and to apply for apprentice opportunities.

Pat McFadden MP was also the guest speaker who gave his support to the day.

Shazad Ahmed, project skills co-ordinator from Wolverhampton Homes, said: "Many women came along to the event which was really successful, it was all about breaking down the stereotypes that construction is only for men.

"I know many people who attended also found it really useful to talk to women already in a trade and get their first hand knowledge and experience."

Rachel Symons, YWCA centre manager, said: "The young women really got involved in the day, getting stuck into tasks they never thought they would be doing and getting an insight into a job sector unfamiliar to most of them. It proves that career advice shouldn't always be steering young women into traditionally 'female' jobs, but should be showing the full spectrum of options available to them."

Low pay commission releases 2009 report

The Low Pay Commission is calling for apprentices to receive a national minimum wage in its 2009 report, published last week. However this will be at a lower rate than for other workers.

They have recommended the Government ask them to look into an appropriate minimum wage rate for apprentices in next year's report. The Government will respond to their recommendations in the summer.

YWCA's Parliamentary officer Helen Berresford said: "If the Government does accept the recommendation it really is great progress and a fantastic step for the More than one rung campaign and us.

The Commission's report also asked for small increases to the current national minimum wage for all workers and for the age at which people receive the adult rate to be lowered from 22-years-old to 21. Both of these recommendations have been accepted. The national minimum wage will rise by 7 pence per hour in October 2009. However the age at which employees receive the adult rate will not change until October 2010.

Helen Berresford said: "We campaigned to get rid of youth rates altogether however, this small change is still a win and welcomed."

James Anthony, UNISON national executive council member said on behalf of national minimum wage campaigners: "Against the backdrop of recession, when we need to be putting more money into the pockets of the low-paid, it is a surprisingly low increase.

"We are pleased that the government has responded positively to the LPC call for the adult rate to start from age 21. However, this small move actually highlights the continuing discrimination by age, preserved in the national minimum wage, which is again exempted from the provisions of the Equality Bill.

"Our message to the government is: we want and need more bold action to raise the level and end the injustices in the national minimum wage. We believe our campaign has played an important role in challenging the proposed zero increase, in winning the change in start of the adult age band, and the proposed inclusion of apprentices. Our campaign continues."

YWCA is part of the campaign to end age discrimination in the national minimum wage.

YWCA has commented on how the government can help apprentices who have lost their jobs due to the recession in the latest issue of Children and Young People Now magazine.

YWCA said: "Employers must take a long-term approach and retain apprentices. They must pay them at least the minimum wage - the majority of the lowest-paid apprentices are young women and some receive less than this."

For more information read our policy statements and information sheets on apprenticeships.

YWCA produce supplement for The Telegraph

To celebrate International Women's Day, YWCA agreed to write a piece for a specially-commissioned Sunday Telegraph supplement.

The piece, called 'Bridging the Gap', is the first feature in the supplement and in it we pay tribute to the thousands of young women who overcome seemingly insurmountable odds to get a place on the career ladder. They may not get the plaudits that women executives who make it to the board room receive, but to us their achievement is no less remarkable considering the obstacles they have overcome.

Click here to take a look.

We want higher national minimum wage and an end to age bands

Following the success of More than one rung, YWCA continues to campaign on behalf of young women to increase the national minimum wage.

We are part of a group whose goals are: to increase the national minimum wage; extend it to cover apprentices; scrap the age bands that discriminate against young workers and make sure workers know about it and employers pay it.

For more information, see the national minimum wage website.

Young women try out non-traditional jobs at skills day

Young women from Dagenham donned their hard hats and grabbed their wrenches for a Skills Day at Building Craft's College London on 3^rd July.

The event was organised by SummitSkills, the Sector Skills Council for building services engineering (BSE) and as part of YWCA's More than One Rung campaign to give young women from disadvantaged backgrounds the chance to work their way off the bottom of the career ladder.

Michaela Yeaman, Kelly Forward and Sherelle Samuel-Bissick from YWCA Dagenham, got stuck into gritty jobs like fixing pipes, carpentering and wiring plugs at the event which was supported by British Gas, WISE and Bovis Lend Lease. Lesley Longstone, Director General for Young People at the Government's Department of Children, Schools and Families attended the event and joined in with the practical work.

Sherelle, 16, said: "It's brilliant, this day has totally changed my mind. Before, I wasn't sure what career I could have but now I can wire a plug, I feel I can do anything! You don't see many women in the construction industry, it's unfair because people think these are men's jobs when women can do them equally well."

Sally Copley, YWCA's Director of Policy, Research and Campaigns said: "This is a great opportunity for disadvantaged young women to see new, unthought-of job possibilities and to have a go for themselves! As SEEDA (South East England

Development Agency) has reported skills shortages in the construction and engineering industry in South East England, there is a big need for more women to join this sector."

Kevin Dowd, Operations Manager of Summit Skills said: "One of SummitSkills' goals is to position building services engineering as the sector of aspirational choice for new entrants at all levels and this includes introducing young women to the sector. SummitSkills is pleased to work with YWCA to create opportunities for girls to have a taste of what it is like to work in non-stereotypical roles."

The new apprenticeship strategy announced by the Government is a huge step forward in providing young people with the path to a decent job. YWCA was pleased to see that many of the things we pointed out to the Government  (as told to us by girls and women) have been considered:

• It has acknowledged how many young women find themselves in poorly-paid apprenticeships and wants to tackle this;
• It has proposed a pilot scheme to help tackle the entrenched problems of gender segregation in certain job sectors;
• In job sectors which have traditionally been dominated by men, YWCA's recommendation is that femal apprentices entering male dominated sectors need support from 'mentors' is reflected.

The strategy also recognises that schoolchildren need information about the different pay rates, working conditions and expectation for different jobs and careers. Once again, this is something we have been calling for.

YWCA welcomes the fact that apprenticeship pay will be looked at in the strategy. However, with many young women still struggling on low apprenticeship wages we are appealing to the Government to set apprenticeship pay at the equivalent of the National Minimum Wage.

The challenge is for this ambitious plan to be fully implemented and YWCA will be following the evolution closely to ensure that it becomes a meaningful option for disadvantaged young women to avoid a lifetime of hardship in poorly paid jobs with no prospects

Sally Copley, director of policy, research and campaigns at YWCA said: "Apprenticeships are clearly an important doorway for young people into a job with future prospects. However there is still an inherent gender injustice that we hope will be genuinely addressed through this plan. The highest paid apprenticeship is in the electro technical field, and is exclusively male. It pays double that of the lowest paid, hairdressing, which is dominated by women. That just cannot be right."

For more information read our briefings and information sheets on jobs and training.