Austrian-wide evaluation of FiT programme

The programme “Women in Trades and Technology (FiT)” was an important element of the women’s employment policy programme 2006-2010 of the Public Employment Service (AMS).
The aim of the “FiT – Women in Trades and Technology” programme was to promote the professional re-orientation of women towards professions in the field of trades and technology.
The evaluation at hand analyzed to what extent the FiT programme was able to reach its objectives and how the programme was assessed by key actors and the people concerned. To answer this question, the following three research methods were chosen:

• Interviews with the persons in charge of the FiT programme in the various Austrian states and with selected project executing organisations,
• phone interviews with over 300 FiT participants and
• secondary data analysis of longitudinal data by the Main Association of Austrian Social Insurance Institutions (HVB) together with data of the Public Employment Service Austria (AMS).

The evaluation showed that the programme was quite successful regarding its aim to motivate women to participate in non-traditional trainings and professions. Over half of the participants who successfully completed a training in the framework of FiT found a job in the field of technology and trades and their workplace satisfaction lied significantly above the one of women in traditional professions. For a subsequent integration into the employment market, trainings of a longer duration and especially in-company trainings such as in-company apprenticeships and skilled worker trainings in the framework of a so-called “Implacement foundation” had proven to be especially useful.