Vocational training choices of women: public and private colleges

This paper contrasts the profiles of women who choose to pursue vocational training in either public institutions (community colleges) or private institutions (career colleges) in Canada with particular attention given to respondents’ life‐course positions. The study employs 1998 Adult Education and Training Survey data. Correspondence analysis shows the relation between training choices of women, their individual characteristics and selected situational, dispositional, and institutional factors. The space topography determined by the correspondence between training choices and women profiles indicates that duration of training constitutes the primary institutional feature distinguishing choice. Older women who need to balance both work and family obligations tend to enroll in single courses and are attracted to the modular programming of the private colleges. In contrast, the traditional program‐based vocational training offered by community colleges is the preferred option for younger women.