Fewer than 5 per cent of apprentices in craft training are women, despite the best efforts of the Government and FAS, the Minister of State for Education, Mr Willie O'Dea, said yesterday. In a statement, Mr O'Dea said that craft training continued to be heavily male-dominated. Although the effectiveness of existing measures was being reviewed, there was a need to evaluate whether other effective steps could be taken to increase the proportion of girls and young women in apprenticeships.
He intended to examine whether youth work programmes could be used to break down the sexual stereotyping which discouraged girls from entering the skilled trades.
