Abstract

In the world of today, the level of economic growth of any nation is a function of its citizens’ accessibility to training programmes. While a highly skilled and acceptable workforce will respond to any changing economic condition, obsolete skills will threaten economic growth. Professional continuing education has the answer to the question of development in this modern age and it is also a vital tool to the ever-increasing changes in the society. Berje (1995) opines that Professional Continuing Education (PCE) cater for more training that can make one professionally competent so as to keep abreast with the time in the profession. Discrimination and inequality has been the bane of women and this has historically disadvantaged them in securing for themselves the status and position in society so as to negotiate a better life for themselves. Poverty and unemployment, lack of adequate financial resources, high illiteracy and limited access to education all militate against women participation in any learning tasks. Understanding the differences between men and women, and how they are determined, is of key importance in understanding why a gender perspective is so important for development and the elimination of poverty. Therefore to remove the feminization of poverty and increase in the participation of women professional continuing education programmes, there is the need for women empowerment. On the basis of the aforementioned issues, this paper recommends large-scale empowerment in the area of capability building for women and that curriculum developer for continuing education programmes should not be gender biased.