Dr Emma Bolger

I am currently running a survey of Modern Apprentices (MAs) in Scotland as part of my PhD research. The survey is about the personal and family background of apprentices, and I am researching how and why people make the career decision to become an apprentice.  If you are an MA, know an MA or manage / train MAs, please ask them to complete my survey! Anyone completing the survey has the chance of winning one of 5 x £20 gift vouchers.  The link to the survey is:  https://hw.onlinesurveys.ac.uk/ma-background-survey-june-2018 

View original post at https://ayrshirecollegeblog.wordpress.com/2016/03/01/guest-post-emma-bolger-on-tackling-gender-imbalance-in-modern-apprenticeships/ Guest post – Emma Bolger on tackling gender imbalance in Modern Apprenticeships Emma Bolger is National Training Programmes Equality Adviser at Skills Development Scotland where she focuses on equality in Modern Apprenticeships, particularly for young women. We asked Emma to tell us a bit about her job. Here’s what she had to say.  My job is to challenge the belief that there are ‘jobs for boys’ or ‘jobs for girls.’ That’s why it is great to be supporting the Equality Challenge Fund project at Ayrshire College – a positive, dynamic and inspiring campaign aimed at increasing the interest of girls and women in science, technology and engineering apprenticeships, and targeting gender balance in these sectors. Why focus on women? I am often asked the question ‘Why does the focus always seem to be on women?’ There are three re...

In December I attended the Scotland Policy Conferences Keynote Seminar: 'Developing the Young Workforce' - next steps for skills development and apprenticeships in Scotland . The briefing document is now available for purchase and has been distributed to delegates, contacts in government, the Scottish Parliament and other stakeholders. I contributed a short article to the briefing document, which is published below. For reference, a full list of the conference contributors can be downloaded here . There was much discussion at the Keynote Seminar of the need for diversity and consideration of equalities within apprenticeship provision. Reference was made by the Cabinet Secretary and Damien Yeates to the recently launched Skills Development Scotland Equality Action Plan for Modern Apprenticeships. Equalities should be seen to lead the development of apprenticeship provision in Scotland. My specialist area is gender bias in Modern Apprenticeships and for me, it was interesti...