Female Participation Soars in Industry Training

April 12 2006 (New Zealand) - "Female participation continues to soar in industry training", said Darel Hall, Executive Director of the Industry Training Federation.

2005 figures released by the Tertiary Education Commission show that 45,000 women took part in formal learning through an Industry Training Organisations in 2005. This compares with 37,000 in 2004, and comes within a context of a record 161,676 participants in industry training.

"Female participation has been increasing at rates of at least 50% more than the rate of increase in male participation in the last three years.

"The ITF has predicted for years that female participation will increase as industry training grows and coverage expands into occupations and industries where women work in higher proportions.

"Raising female participation in training is one of several strategies industries through their ITOs are using to overcome skill shortages.

"The high relevance of industry training was reinforced yesterday by Tertiary Education Minister Dr Michael Cullen, who told those at the Industry Training Federation Members' Forum that ITOs were the success story of the tertiary education sector over the last few years", said Darel Hall.

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