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This book looks at the current situation of women in TAFE. It explores women's disadvantages in terms of quality, concentration of narrow range of jobs, small share of resources and difficulty in breaking into male-dominated fields. Re-entry into education as adults is investigated. The contents are: Second-rate citizens; Constructing skill in Australia; Australia's technical education system; Vocational education: women's share, women's place; What's wrong with TAFE colleges?; Women's courses: keyboards, clothes, kids and community care; Resources: margin versus mainstream; Breaking in: women in non-traditional study; Coming back: women returning to work and study; Some lessons from overseas; Changing the system. Show less

This report summarises findings from the second Australian Work and Life Index (AWALI) survey of work-life interaction in Australia. It builds on the findings of the 2007 survey (indexed at TD/TNC 96.21). Over 2800 workers representative of the Australian workforce were surveyed. A subset of 1400 respondents provided opinions on issues related to workplace culture, unsocial work hours and public/private employment. AWALI measures perceptions of work-life interaction focussing on: ‘general interference’ (i.e., the frequency with which work interferes with responsibilities or activities outside work), ‘time strain’ (i.e., the frequency with which work restricts time with family or friends); work-to-community interaction, measuring the frequency with which work affects workers’ ability to develop or maintain connections and friendships in their local community; satisfaction with overall work-life ‘balance’; and, frequency of feeling rushed or pressed for time. Together these five measures of work-life interaction present an overall work-life index that is scaled from 0 (best work-life interaction) to 100 (worst work-life interaction). Key findings from the survey include: (i) South Australian, Western Australian and Tasmanian respondents reported the best work-life interaction; (ii) part-time workers, on average, have a better work-life interaction than full-timers; (iii) work continues to interfere with the rest of life for a large proportion of workers: over half of all employees felt that work sometimes, often or almost always interferes with activities outside work; (iv) the most common type of work-life interference is restriction of time with family and friends due to work; (v) work to community spill over is also widespread with 44.6 per cent of men and 40.2 per cent of women feeling that work sometimes, often or almost always affects their community connections; (vi) around 55 per cent of employees frequently (often/almost always) feel rushed or pressed for time. As in 2007, women are especially rushed and pressed for time. A majority of both full-time and part-time women often or almost always feel rushed; and (vii) despite these pressures, most Australians remain satisfied with their work-life relationship: the majority (68.3 per cent) are satisfied with their overall work-life balance and there is no gender difference in satisfaction.

The 2009 survey is indexed at TD/TNC 96.988. Show less

This report on the Australian Work and Life Index (AWALI) is the first of an annual survey of work-life interaction in Australia. It describes key results arising from the initial 2007 survey and analyses them by gender and other factors. Subsequent publications will go beyond this descriptive account to undertake multivariate analysis. The program's database is a survey of over 1400 working Australians undertaken in March 2007. The survey contains a number of questions which directly assess respondents' perception of work-to-life interaction and vice versa. It measures two dimensions of influence: firstly, the impact of each sphere (work, non-work life) on respondents' capacity to satisfactorily engage in the activities and responsibilities of the other sphere (which is termed a general strain or interference effect) and secondly, the time available to spend in the other sphere (which is viewed as a time strain effect). The survey found that it is widely accepted that working conditions and experiences can affect workers' physical and mental health and well-being. Similarly, the study shows that negative work-life spillover is also associated with worse health. Poor work-life outcomes also show a clear relationship to (self-reported) physical, mental and social well-being. Men and women with the worst work-life outcomes report poorer health, more use of prescription medications, more stress, and more dissatisfaction with their close personal relationships. Work-life outcomes are imposing high costs on individuals, families and the broader community. This study confirms the importance of work-life issues in Australia and creates a firm basis for greater policy and research attention to these questions and their effects.

The 2008 and 2009 surveys are indexed at TD/TNC 93.350 and TD/TNC 96.988 respectively. Show less

This report summarises findings from the third Australian Work and Life Index (AWALI) survey of work-life interference in Australia. It builds on the findings of the 2007 and 2008 surveys (indexed at TD/TNC 96.21 and TD/TNC 93.350 respectively). The 2009 survey includes 2691 workers (2307 employees and 384 self-employed), providing a robust, national, stratified random sample of the Australian workforce. The survey provides good representation by gender, state, age, part-time/full-time work hours, and employee/self employed work arrangements. However, it somewhat over-represents those with university degrees and professional workers and somewhat under-represents casual workers. Each AWALI survey takes a particular focus: in 2007 it was on working time, in 2008 workplace culture and in 2009 we focus on requests for flexibility and their outcomes, undertake some international comparisons and consider how work-life pressures affect participation in education and training. AWALI survey data was collected in March 2009 against the background of the global economic crisis of 2008/09 and a significant economic downturn in Australia, and a year and a half after the election of the Rudd Labor Government. Compared to 2008, employees' average working hours fell a little in 2009: from 38.2 to 37.1 hours, perhaps reflecting the economic slowdown. As we know from previous AWALI surveys, shorter working hours are associated with better work-life interference. However, there has been little change in the overall work-life situation of Australian workers between 2007 and 2009. However, when men and women are considered separately, there is evidence of a worsening of work-life interference for women. Three years of data about work-life interference in Australia tell us that many employees experience frequent interference from work in their personal, home and community lives, many feel overloaded at work and feelings of time pressure are also common and growing. However, work-life interference does not fall evenly across the population. While two-thirds of working Australians say they are broadly satisfied with their work-life balance, some groups such as women working full-time are especially negatively affected. Show less