Up to the Job

In the classrooms of the Vanuatu Institute of Technology a quiet shift in the traditional male trades is taking place.

It's a car mechanics lesson - students have their heads under car bonnets. Everyone is working intently. What's interesting is that some of the most willing students are female. In the electrical wiring and woodwork classes it's the same. Women are applying themselves to what used to be considered male trades - and they're getting results.

Practising new skills in the woodwork class

The women in these classes are the recipients of equity scholarships, awarded by the Australian Government. The scholarships are highly prized, for they represent a passport to a job and a way of earning a living. The full significance of this is understood when it's also realised that only 500 new jobs are generated in the formal labour market each year.

Another reason why the scholarships are highly prized is because education in Vanuatu is not a given. Of the 6,000 students who sit exams in grade 6, only 1,400 are awarded a place in the formal education system. The reason is Vanuatu has too many students for its limited resources - there's simply not enough places at schools, or teachers, to meet the demand.

Many of the children who do not make it into high school work in home gardens or migrate to town in the vague but usually vain hope of finding work.

At any one time the Australian Government supports 10 new and 10 ongoing scholarships at the Vanuatu Institute of Technology. Scholarship holders are young women, students with disabilities or boys from very disadvantaged backgrounds. They may be aged about 16 or they may be mature age but each will have his or her fees paid for the duration of the two-year courses.

When students receive equity scholarships, there's more than a strong chance that they will be employed at the end. 'By and large, all hospitality and tourism students get jobs even before they graduate,' says Tracey McMartin from AusAID's Vanuatu section.

So far Australia has awarded 165 scholarships. Graduates are now working throughout Vanuatu as mechanics, electricians, refrigeration technicians, builders, furniture makers, secretaries, tourism officers and cruise staff.

'Doubters thought that even if the girls survived the hard, physical conditions in the classroom and the academic demands of study, they would not be welcome by employers. Fortunately the doubters are wrong. Employers are happy to employ capable young women. No one is much worried about the trades becoming less of a male preserve - it's more a question of who's up to the job,' says Tracey McMartin.

For more information see www.ausaid.gov.au/scholar

2005