|
|
| Home | Search | Site Map | Help | |
Women continue to do well in all levels of education with more girls than boys completing Year 12 and more women than men undertaking higher education. There has been a steady increase in the participation of women in non-traditional areas of study. For example the number of women participating in vocational education and training is rising much faster than for men, and women now make up 49.0 per cent of students in this education stream. This year's Budget recognises that women are still not equally represented in science and technology and, in addition, places a new emphasis on increasing women's access to post graduate qualifications. The Budget also recognises the need to be at the forefront in areas where women are highly represented with a review of current arrangements for the education and training of nurses.
The Department of Industry, Science and Resources administers the Science and Technology Awareness Programme (STAP). STAP is designed to raise community awareness about the importance of science and technology and to encourage young people to undertake science-based careers. Women are one of the target groups of the programme: reached directly via a number of supported external activities and, indirectly, through general program activities. Currently women have a low participation rate at all levels of activity in science and technology, including secondary education, tertiary education and employment, and need to be made more aware of science and technology in career choices. Women can make a greater contribution in their own right and also have a significant influence on the attitudes of young people. An appreciation of the importance of science and technology will assist them in providing better informed guidance to young people.
The $35 million National Innovation Awareness Strategy announced in the Innovation Statement Backing Australia's Ability will broaden the emphasis of STAP to encourage participation of women in innovation and entrepreneurship, in addition to science and technology.
The Government has announced a national review of nursing education, commencing in May 2001. The previous review of nursing education was conducted in 1994 a year after the transfer of nursing training from hospitals into universities was finalised. Since that review, the links between nursing education and the demands of the labour market have become the focus of increasing debate.
The review team has been asked to make recommendations on models of nurse education and training to meet emerging labour force needs, including practical training and re-entry into the workforce. It will also examine the types of skills and knowledge required to meet the changing needs of nurses and mechanisms for attracting new recruits as well as encouraging the commitment to life-long learning of those already engaged in the profession.
As the Government is keen to elicit views from the many stakeholders interested in nursing education there will be public submissions, consultations and a reference group from key organisations. To give stakeholders as full an opportunity as possible to have input into the review, it will not report until early 2002.
The review will look at the effectiveness of current arrangements for the education and training of nurses including enrolled, registered and specialist nurses. It will help inform Government and health care providers of the factors in the labour market that affect employment of nurses and the choice of nursing as a career.
The recently announced Postgraduate Education Loans Scheme (PELS) will provide further opportunities for women and others undertaking higher degrees by coursework, both in acquiring new skills and in upgrading their existing qualifications.
As part of the Government's commitment to innovation, the Backing Australia's Ability Innovation Statement announced the PELS initiative to encourage life-long learning and to help Australian's upgrade and acquire new skills. PELS will be available from 2002 and provides an income contingent loan for eligible students enrolled in fee-paying postgraduate non-research courses. PELS will encourage individuals employed in community-based professions such as nursing, health and psychology, areas where women are often employed, to pursue further study without the need to pay a tuition fee on enrolment.
PELS is an interest free loans scheme similar to the Higher Education Contribution Scheme (HECS) with income-contingent repayment arrangements. Students will begin repaying their loan when their income reaches the minimum threshold for compulsory repayments. Compulsory repayments via the taxation system will be based on the principle that the more a person earns, the higher the repayment until the loan is repaid. Unlike HECS however, universities, rather than the Government, will set tuition prices of courses for which PELS loans are available.
At the postgraduate level, 52.7 per cent of students undertaking higher degrees by coursework are women. It is expected that 126,000 women will be eligible to apply for a PELS loan over the next five years.