Impact summary

The Women in Trades Research Team's has had significant policy, community and economic impact in NSW and Victoria, and nationally, with regional and metropolitan outcomes.

At a community level, our research has been promoted extensively to careers advisors in NSW School education through attendance and presentation of findings at regional and state practitioner conferences and through practitioner publications.

At a policy level, the research has also contributed to the development of state government vocational education and training policies and programs. In 2020, the NSW Government drew on the team’s industry report A trade of one’s own to inform the State's Trade Skills Pathways Centre (Trade Pathways Program). This program established the framework for a robust trades workforce and sustainable skills development to drive job growth and economic prosperity post COVID-19, including the Trade Pathways Program, which provided a Women in Trades Strategy to increase participation of women in trades. A trade of one’s own was also cited in the NSW Budget papers in 2022 to support the NSW government’s spending of $20.2 million to triple the number of women in construction by 2030, from 5% to 15%.

In terms of economic impact, in Victoria, the Trade of one’s own report informed the Victorian gender equality strategy Safe and Strong and has been used by the community organisation TradesWomen Australia to support their application to Training Victoria for their CareersPlus Program which aims to place 100 tradeswomen into male dominated industries over 24 months. The Women in Trades Team have been contracted to evaluate the success and the social outcomes of this program.

Research and engagement activities leading to impact

The Women in Trades Project included three comprehensive industry stakeholder consultations held in Albury, Bathurst and Wagga Wagga during 2018. These consultations provided illumination about the persistent barriers to women’s recruitment and retention as well as insights revealing how women can pursue successful, meaningful careers. As part of the broader research project, these consultations were a grassroots initiative to understand the lived experiences
of tradeswomen, apprentices, the industry they work in and the organisations that
support them.

Research outputs associated with the impact

The project has produced eight high-impact research outputs, four in Q1 journals, 3 in Q2 journals and one industry report. These outputs have received 131 citations in the past 3 years (Google Scholar), and our industry report has been downloaded more than 500 times. ResearchGate reports that our systematic literature review has 62 citations, and has a higher research interest score than 96% of articles published in 2020.
The project has also resulted in more than ten media appearances on local, state and national radio and television and led to two opinion pieces in The Conversation.

Researcher involvement

Donna Bridges, Elizabeth Wulff, Larissa Bamberry, Branka Krivokapic-Skoko and Stacey Jenkins devised this grass roots project to identify barriers and facilitators to women's entry into the trades in regional Australia. The team hosted industry stakeholder consultative workshops, collected in-depth interviews with tradeswomen, their employers and key stakeholders and held focus groups with women apprentices. They have produced a report, quality research outputs, received media attention and the work has had high impact across a range of dimensions.

Outcomes of research leading to impact

Demonstrating high community, state and national impact this research has been:
i.Cited by the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Education, Employment and Training inquiry into perceptions and status of VET
ii.Contributed to the NSW Government’s Women’s Budget 2022 (p26) to support funding into women’s pathways into VET
iii.Used by TradesWomen Australia (TWA) (2020-2021) to support funding applications to the Victorian Department of Education for their CareersPlus program to place women apprentices within male-dominated trades.
iv.Impacted on further research and changes to practice within the Victorian VET system.
v.Resulted in more than ten media appearances on local, state and national radio and television and led to two opinion pieces in The Conversation.
This research has resulted in industry funding of $46,000 with the team asked to evaluate the impact of the TWA CareersPlus program and to extend our research into the field of tradeswomen in the mining sector by Cadia.

Beneficiaries of the impact

At a community level, our research has been promoted extensively to careers advisors in NSW School education through attendance and presentation of findings at regional and state practitioner conferences and through practitioner publications. The research has also contributed to the development of state government vocational education and training policies and programs. In 2020, the NSW Government drew on the team’s industry report A trade of one’s own to inform the State's Trade Skills Pathways Centre (Trade Pathways Program). This program established the framework for a robust trades workforce and sustainable skills development to drive job growth and economic prosperity post COVID-19, including the Trade Pathways Program, which provided a Women in Trades Strategy to increase participation of women in trades.

At a political level we have made considerable impact: A trade of one’s own was also cited in the NSW Budget papers in 2022 to support the NSW government’s spending of $20.2 million to triple the number of women in construction by 2030, from 5% to 15%.

Similarly, in Victoria, the Trade of one’s own report informed the Victorian gender equality strategy Safe and Strong and has been used by the community organisation TradesWomen Australia to support their application to Training Victoria for their CareersPlus Program which aims to place 100 tradeswomen into male dominated industries over 24 months. The Women in Trades Team have been contracted to evaluate the success and the social outcomes of this program.

At the industry level, our team has been funded to undertake further research into the careers of tradeswomen within the mining sector, to explore how a trades training can contribute to a fulfilling career in regional and remote Australia.

Details of the impact achieved

Melbourne Polytechnic representatives have asked us to participate in educating their staff in gender equity and specifically in issues associated with the integration of women in the trades. In September 2022 we were contacted by Anthony Hinds, Implementation Lead, Gender Equality & Family Violence Primary Prevention, Melbourne Polytechnic. Mr Hinds said ‘'A Trade of One's Own' and its companion on tokenism. As a Victorian TAFE, we are keen to see many more women in trades and to consider how we can address barriers in the VET classroom … I was hoping to have a conversation with you about options for sharing your research with our staff’. We have since been invited by Melbourne Polytech to present at their ‘Thought Leadership’ series this December. This builds on our work throughout 2018 & 2019 when we presented three times at the National Centre for Vocational Education Research (NCVER) VET Training & Research Conferences ‘No Frills’ and five times at the NSW Future Skills Conference, NSW Department of Education.
We were recently contacted by Craig Dearling, General Manager, MasterBuilders QLD
Who said ‘I read with great interest your recent opinion piece in the AFR. With a current skills shortage in our industry we need to encourage diversity, so it’s pleasing that there’s people like you raising the cultural issues we have … the recently published Girls in trades: Tokenism and sexual harassment inside the VET classroom [and] other articles you have had published that I am currently reading … I am reaching out is to say how much I enjoyed reading the articles, and how great it is that it is being promoted in more general media too … Thank you again for your great work’.

Our research has reached an international audience, leading to the potential for collaboration with researchers in Canada and the UK. In October 2022 we were approached by Breena Jackson an educator at the Joinery Department of the British Columbia Institute of Technology who said “I am completing a masters in equity studies in education and over the course of my degree I have devoured your articles. Of all the reading I have done over the past 2 years your work has had the biggest impact on my praxis and has felt the most aligned with my own lived experience in the trades. Thank you for your work. It has deeply impacted the way I teach and by extension is impacting hundreds of trades folks out here on Canadas west coast”. Given Breena’s Jackson’s position as VET instructor and her academic experience the Women in Trades team has developed a collaborative Australia/Canada project.

Impact date01 Jan 201831 Dec 2023

Countries where impact occurred

  • Australia

Sustainable Development Goals

  • SDG 5: Gender Equality
  • SDG 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth