Dr Emma Bolger

Full text below of my guest blog post that appeared in today's #TheWeekInCareers on one of my favourite topics, the gender balance within the career development sector. #TheWeekInCareers:  Episode 106 Link *** “It has only crossed my mind when you’ve pointed it out. I’ve never really associated it as a sort of woman’s role.” These are the words of a CIAG Modern Apprentice I interviewed a few years ago as part of my PhD. As career professionals we are all familiar with concepts of occupational segregation and gender balance, or lack thereof, across employment roles and sectors. I am concerned about the presence of occupational segregation within our own field. Diversity matters for our profession. As public facing advisers, we need to reflect the demographics of the public. Ok, so on the occupational segregation front, it’s not as marked in CIAG as other sectors (I’m not going to list them here, we know what they are), but we could do better. However, there are other reasons w...

A new article I have co-written with Elsa Olaru will be published this month in the Journal of the National Institute for Career Education and Counselling (Issue 48).  Our work on this topic is continuing, and we are pleased to announce that we've recently been awarded funding by the UWS-Oxfam partnership to undertake research into the barriers to apprenticeship provision faced by single mothers. Our paper on the career development needs of single parents can be read via this link below: Olaru, E. and Bolger, E. (2022)  Meeting the career development needs of single parents . Journal of the National Institute for Career Education and Counselling.  NICEC Journal April 2022: Issue 48

A Gaelic language version of my survey of Modern Apprentices (MAs) in Scotland, is now available. 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. Gaelic language version:  https://hw.onlinesurveys.ac.uk/ma-background-survey-gaelic-language-version 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. 

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 

I have two poster presentations coming up at conferences this autumn: Addressing under-representation in our sector  Network for Innovation in Career Guidance and Counselling in Europe, Academy Conference  (September 2018) Addressing gendered career decision-making: adapting career guidance and counselling practice to the contemporary family structure  International Association for Educational and Vocational Guidance Conference (October 2018) Due to my return from maternity leave and having a small, still nursing baby, I will be unable to attend in person, however will have a representative beside my poster at these conferences.  Copies of the posters will be uploaded here afterwards. 

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...

The General Election campaigns are out of the way and it is time to look ahead to what the Conservatives proposed in relation to work, education and skills. What will they deliver in career education, advice and guidance, and specific initiatives to support young people into sustainable employment and relevant training over the next five years? There is of course one thing that every party talked about (endlessly, it seemed, at times): apprenticeships. Apprenticeships for young people, if any of the party manifestos were to be believed, are going to solve a heck of a lot of problems. While my PhD looks at one specific programme of apprenticeships in Scotland, what I want to talk about in this post are apprenticeships in general. There are major challenges if they are to be used as the magic elixir they have been purported to be. There are concerns about current apprenticeship provision: the percentage of people starting apprenticeships who are already over 25 (and theref...

A brief post to record thoughts on two issues I’ve been thinking about this week: -  What are the implications if a person thinks of themselves as a trainee or a learner rather than a student and where does an apprentice fit in amongst these titles?  -  What differences exist in experience and perception of a course of study between that which is embedded within a traineeship, internship or apprenticeship rather than as a standalone course? Where this stems from is that I was recently talking to a representative from one of the armed forces about apprenticeships and he–quite interestingly–told me, “most of our trainees are apprentices, they just don’t realise.” I’ve been thinking about the idea that someone might well be in formal or fairly structured learning without realising it, admitting to it or it being made public knowledge. Going off to be a student at 16, 17 or 18 perhaps even dependent on the subject, isn’t always the “coolest” thing to do.* ...