The ‘Women into Non-Traditional Employment’ programme focuses on providing opportunities for  women to consider training for, or working in, non-traditional jobs followed by work preparation.   

This new programme is aimed at women who are unemployed and who are disadvantaged in the labour market. Few have academic competencies but have a wealth of transferable skills and competencies that they have gained through life experiences and the programme will help them to identify these, thus increasing self esteem and confidence. It also recognises competencies in male areas of work such as painting and decorating, bricklaying, and ICT. Women do not identify these as working skills of which they can be justly proud.   

The project started in January 2007 and had a remit to:  

• Focus on employment in non-traditional areas

• Gain accreditation for the programme from National Open College Network (NOCN) and make this available on an ‘open-shelf’ basis

• Pilot the programme in a Children's Centre

• Provide a written evaluation

• Produce a package of materials, and guidance for use, for distribution to all Children's Centres.

The materials within the package have been drawn from a number of sources but have been arranged and amended in such as way as to focus the learner on the context of non-traditional employment. The qualification includes elements which enable the learner to look at their skills and experiences and identify the ones that can be transferred to jobs within non-traditional environments. Through this process the learner can start to build a Curriculum Vitae which reflects her knowledge, skills and experiences drawn from all areas of her life.   

The qualification produced was approved by the National Open College Network in February 2007, at level 1 and level 2, (credit level 3). The package has been successfully piloted with a group of 14 women from Allen’s Croft Children's Centre and is available to download here.