Empowerment or Escape? Technical Training for Homeworkers in Britain

Abstract

This paper looks briefly at the situation of technical and vocational training for homeworkers in Britain and identifies the criteria for evaluating their achievements. In terms of current activity on homeworking, the overwhelming picture that emerges is that of small, marginalised organisations struggling to meet a huge demand with inadequate resources. In spite of this, homeworking projects have demonstrated that homeworkers can be reached, that they are keen to train, and very committed to training given the right conditions. Although there is considerable rhetoric about the need for more training, both in the clothing sector, and more generally in Britain, mainstream training provision continues to marginalise women generally and is inaccessible to homeworkers and most black and working-class women. Hence, to be fully successful, the author argues, the technical training has to be part of an integrated structure of training provisions for women that enable them to work together towards long-term changes and empowerment.

Mary Hopkins worked at the Leicester Outwork Campaign from 1981 to 1987 and subsequently researched homeworking action projects on a nationwide basis while a Fellow at the School of Policy Studies, Cranfield Institute of Technology.