Working women keen on more education: education

A recent survey found that the majority of working females in Shanghai want to further their educations or take short-term training courses, local media reported Wednesday.

The purpose of the survey was to study the needs of working women as part of a broader local government goal to implement lifelong education programs for women, said Wang Ruihong, an expert at East China University of Science and Technology, who was in charge of the survey.

"A lot of working women today would like to further their educations or take job training courses to combat the stress from the competition in their work," Wang told the Global Times.

The university and the Shanghai Women's Federation surveyed 2,600 working women from across the city, according to a report in Jiefang Daily. More than half of the respondents said they would like to get a higher degree and 67 percent said that they had an interest in taking short-term trainings courses.

Unlike men, women in Shanghai usually face greater pressure to find a balance between work and family, and often run into a glass ceiling that prevents them from advancing in their careers as easily as their male colleagues, Wang said.

Regarding furthering their education, 34 percent of respondents said that the ideal education for a woman is a master degree and 29 percent said that they would like to get a bachelor's degree.

"We found that migrant workers usually prefer short-term training classes because they provide practical skills that are more useful for their jobs. Office workers, however, do not show such a strong tendency," Wang said.

Migrant workers usually take training courses in languages, computer skills or housekeeping skills, Wang said. Office workers prefer to take courses that help them learn less tangible skills like etiquette.

The survey found that a lack of free time was the biggest problem preventing working women from putting their self-improvement plans into practice.