Female participation in apprenticeships has increased in recent years but completion rates for women in male-dominated trades such as electrotechnology and boilermaking are still in single digits.
The federal government’s latest Jobs and Skills Report found in 2025 females comprised 11.5 per cent of all trade apprentices in training, a slight increase on 11.1 per cent a decade earlier.
While female participation in trade apprenticeships has grown, women are 30 per cent more likely to leave the trades than men.
Australia’s workforce in industries like HVACR and building services are still segregated with men working in higher paid occupations like engineering.
Recognising that little has changed over the past 20 years, the federal government has committed to a mix of immediate initiatives as well as long term plans.
For example, earlier this year the government announced 10 projects will receive a combined $45 million under the Building Women’s Career (BWC) Program.
The BWC Program will invest a total of $54.5 million in programs to improve women’s access to flexible, safe and inclusive training and work opportunities in male-dominated industries.
Long-term the government introduced a 10-year plan from 2023 to 2033 to unleash the full capacity of women in the workforce. This plan is already seeing results with the Office of Women reporting improvements to the gender pay gap.
Initiated by the Women’s Economic Equality Taskforce, the plan found that Australia could add $128 billion to the economy by boosting women’s workforce participation and by tackling the factors holding women back.
This has led to the annual Status of Women Report Card to track national progress on gender and the introduction of mandatory reporting on gender equality for companies with 100 or more employees.
By legislating gender reporting Australia is In line with OECD best practice. Moreover, it allows the government to track progress and finetune policy initiatives.