Submissions: Draft Curriculum Feedback
30 November 2006
FREEPOST
Draft Curriculum Feedback
Ministry of Education
PO Box 1666
Thorndon
WELLINGTON
File No: NAC 3/1
To Whom It May Concern:
DRAFT CURRICULUM FEEDBACK
Thank you for the opportunity to comment on The New Zealand Curriculum: Draft for consultation 2006. The National Advisory Council on the Employment of Women (NACEW) is an independent advisory body to the Minister of Labour on matters related to women and employment and our vision is, “a good deal on women and work”.
We note with appreciation that “Equity” is expressed both as a principle and as a value in the draft curriculum as gender equity in education is crucial pre-cursor to pay and employment equity between women and men. Women’s education choices, their level of participation in the labour market, and the jobs they do are connected to each other.
In the New Zealand context we note the persistence of skill shortages, the predominance of women in lower-skilled occupations, and the comparative lack of women in senior positions compared with men. A key way to address these issues is to focus on education and influencing the aspirations and assumptions made in childhood and early adulthood. The Workforce Productivity Challenge has identified a need to strengthen links between education and training providers and employers’ skill needs.
In the United Kingdom, career education and work experience placements have been found to be strongly segregated by gender, reinforcing gender stereotypes about work. Interviews with students, however, found a significant proportion of both boys and girls were open to considering non-traditional work, particularly when they were provided with advice or information on work experience in a non-traditional sector. Within the professions, women’s narrower range of subject choices at school carries through into their lower representation in technological fields. This is supported by the findings of recent research in New Zealand which has found that girls need better information about wages and the cost of education and training to inform their decision-making about career paths.
NACEW therefore urges that schools are supported to implement the New Zealand Curriculum in a way that supports informed decision-making by girls and young women about their employment and career aspirations.
Yours sincerely
REFERENCES
Equal Opportunities Commission (2005) Free to Choose: Tackling gender barriers to better jobs, Great Britain Summary Report – EOC’s investigation into workplace segregation of women and men, www.eoc.org.uk
Equal Opportunities Commission (2005) Part-Time is no Crime – So why the Penalty? Interim report of the EOC’s investigation into flexible and part-time working and questions for consultation, www.eoc.org.uk
Kingsmill, Denise (2001) Report on Women’s Employment and Pay, Department for Education and Skills, United Kingdom, www.kingsmillreview.gov.uk
Sheffield Limited (2006) Research on Wages and Costs of Education and Training, Prepared for the Ministry of Women’s Affairs, Wellington
Workplace Productivity Working Group (2004) The Workplace Productivity Challenge, Department of Labour, Wellington
