Employment and Training Opportunities in Manufacturing Industries
The Experience of Women in Queensland
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1017/S1321816600001057Keywords:
Manufacturing industries, women's employment, Brisbane, opportunities to capitaliseAbstract
Manufacturing industries continue to be promoted by governments and commentators as vital to the provision of quality employment and the furthering of export performance. It has been extensively argued that the adoption of advanced manufacturing technology which require highly trained staff will provide quality employment and facilitate the building of the national skills base. However, women employed in manufacturing have generally been concentrated in low skilled employment and non-trade occupations. Therefore, it cannot be assumed that that the upgrading of skills in manufacturing industries will benefit women. This paper examines women's employment in two manufacturing industries in the Brisbane area — Food Processing and Light Metal Products. It shows that, although there is increasing evidence that these industries have increased their training effort, there is little evidence to suggest that women employed in manufacturing in Queensland have been able to capitalise on these opportunities.
References
Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), catalogue number 6203, various years, The Labour Force, Australia. Canberra: AGPS.
Beechey, Veronica and Perkins, Tessa (1987) A Matter of Hours — Women, Part-time work and the Labour Market, Cambridge: Polity Press.
Bell, Stephen (1993) Australian Manufacturing and the State, Melbourne: Cambridge University Press.
Bell, Stephen (1997) Ungoverning the Economy, Melbourne: Oxford University Press.
Borland, Jeff and Foo, Lyn (1996) ‘The composition of employment in manufacturing industry’, Journal of Industrial Relations 38(3): 442–446.
Bureau of Industry Economics (BIE) Australia (1993) Australian Industry Trends 17, Canberra: BIE.
Employment and Skills Formation Council (ESFC) (1992) Australian Vocational Training Certificate System, Canberra: AGPS.
Cohen, Stephen and Zysman, Joseph (1987) Manufacturing Matters — The Myth of the Post-Industrial Economy, New York: Basic Books.
Dawkins, John S. (1998) Industry Training in Australia — The Need for Change, Canberra: AGPS.
Department of Employment, Education and Training (DEET) (Economic and Policy Analysis Division). (1991) Australia's Workforce in the Year 2001. Canberra: AGPS.
DEET (Vocational Education, Employment, Education and Training Committee [VEETAC]) (1992) Essential Features of Australia's Training System, Canberra: AGPS.
Australian Education Council (AEC) (1991) Review of Young Peoples Participation in Post-Compulsory Education — Main Report, Canberra: AGPS.
Ewer, Peter, Higgins, Winton and Stevens, Annette (1987) Unions and the Future of Manufacturing in Australia, Sydney: Allen and Unwin.
Glezer, Helen (1988) Maternity Leave in Australia: Employee and Employer Experiences, Melbourne: Australian Institute of Family Studies.
Gospel, Howard F. (1994) ‘The survival of apprenticeship training in Australia?’, Journal of Industrial Relations 36 (1): 37–56.
Green, Ron (1994) The Role and Significance of Metal and Engineering Skills in Australia: A Case Study Analysis. Department of Economics Research Report or Occasional Paper No. 201. No. 17 ESC Working Paper Series. Employment Studies Centre, University of Newcastle.
Higgins, Winton (1991) ‘Missing the boat — Labor and industry in the eighties’, in Galligan, Brian and Singleton, Gwynneth (eds.) Business and Government under Labor, Melbourne: Longman Cheshire.
House of Representatives Standing Committee on Employment, Education and Training. 1991. Skills Training for the 21st Century. Canberra: AGPS.
Lee, Julie-Anne (1994) ‘Women and enterprise bargaining: the corset of the 1990s?’ Australian Journal of Public Administration 53: 189–200.
Macken, James J. (1989) Award Restructuring. Annandale: The Federation Press.
Muller, Juanita (1997) ‘Women in Unemployment: Research Findings and Further Issues’, in Tomlinson, J., Patton, W., Creed, P. and Hicks, R. (eds.) Unemployment Policy and Practice, Brisbane: Australian Academic Press.
National Metal and Engineering Training Board (NMETB) (1995) The National Metal and Engineering Curriculum Module Banks — build your workforce with the skills you need. NMEBT.
O'Donnell, Carol (1984) The Basis of the Bargain — Gender, Schooling and Jobs, Sydney: George Allen & Unwin.
Probert, Belinda (1992) ‘Award Restructuring and Clerical Work: Skills, Training and Careers in a Feminized Occupation’, Journal of Industrial Relations 34(3): 436–454.
Stevensen, John C. and McKavanagh, Charles W. (1992) ‘Skills formation for the workplace’, in Poole, Millicent (ed.) Education and Work, Hawthorn: ACER.
Pocock, Barbara (1988) Demanding Skills: Women and Technical Education in Australia, Sydney: George Allen and Unwin.
Robertson, Rachel and Carapellucci, Flora (1992) ‘Enterprise bargaining: implications for women’, Work and People 14 (2): 19–24.
Smith, Meg and Ewer, Peter (1995) The Position of Women in the National Training Reform Agenda and Enterprise Bargaining, Canberra: AGPS.
Wajcman, Judy (1991) ‘Patriarchy, technology and conceptions of skill’, Work and Occupations 18 (1): 29–45.
Weeks, Anne (1992) ‘Women into trades: rhetoric or reality?’, in Poole, Millicent (ed.) Education and Work. Hawthorn: ACER.
Wickham, Ann (1986) Women and Training. Milton Keynes: Open University Press.
Wilkins, P. (1983) ‘Women and engineering in the Plymouth area: job segregation and training at company level’, EOC Research Bulletin 7.
