What we want
Girls and young women from poor backgrounds need skills and training. Without these they have no chance of climbing off the bottom rung of the career ladder. So we're asking for:
Self-esteem and confidence are as critical as qualifications when it comes to choices about work.
- a duty on local authorities and key local players to better assess the needs of young women so they can provide them with skills, training and apprenticeships.
- businesses to recruit and employ more disadvantaged girls and young women. Seven out of ten employers agree that recruiting more young people of the ‘non-traditional’ sex for that job would help to solve skills shortages!
- Government and employers need to make sure that young women get better access to skills and apprenticeship training.
- Children’s Trusts to make sure that all girls from poor communities have support from an inspirational adult to raise their confidence and broaden their horizons. Self-esteem and confidence are as critical as qualifications when it comes to choices about work.
Society needs to reassess the value of the work that women do. At YWCA we're working with other organisations to improve pay and the perceived value of women’s work. But right now our focus is young women, skills and the work choices they make.