Education Today Education Today Magazine
Gender stereotypes around apprenticeship applications still exist despite efforts to dissipate them according to new research from GetMyFirstJob.
The apprenticeship match-making platform, which has over 230,000 young people in its database, found that 91% of male applicants registered on its site were interested in construction roles as opposed to only 9% of females. A similar correlation follows for engineering with 90% of males interested in engineering apprenticeships as opposed to only 10% of females.
Popular apprenticeship choices amongst female candidates using the platform were roles within childcare (87%) and hairdressing (87%) as opposed to only 13% of male candidates for the same positions.
The most popular apprenticeships overall on the site were found to be in the ‘new economy’ sector, particularly financial services and accountancy apprenticeships. On average, there were 54 applications for every vacancy in financial services and 36 applications for every accountancy vacancy over the past year. Roles in business administration closely followed with 10 applications on average for every business administration training programme within GetMyFirstJob’s pool of candidates.
Managing over 20,000 applications a month, GetMyFirstJob matches young people with employers that provide apprenticeships across a wide range of sectors. Their recruitment management system massively speeds up the recruitment process as well as improving the choices available to employers and candidates alike.
Founder and Managing Director of GetMyFirstJob, David Allison said of the research: “Whilst attitudes towards apprenticeships have become more positive and the increase of higher and degree level apprenticeships make them the right choice for many more people, it is clear from our data that there are some significant gender differences in perception and aspiration.”
“Our data shows the huge popularity of ‘new economy’ and IT roles for young people in 2016 as opposed to the more stereotypical roles of plumbing and construction which have conditioned perceptions for too long.”
Allison added: “More work needs to be done amongst schools, colleges and training providers to ensure everyone involved understands the opportunity that apprenticeships offer young people. This involves challenging the many established stereotypes about what an apprenticeship is, and who should consider them.”
