The persistence of gender segregation in the labour market is the subject of concern to research and policy communities in Europe and elsewhere. The nature of girls' choices have long been of concern as female dominated sectors tend to be low paid and to offer weak career opportunities. There is a history in European countries and the USA of initiatives designed to challenge the traditional decisions made by girls, and to a lesser extent by boys, to enter male and female occupations. These initiatives are underpinned by equal opportunities legislation and are often funded by the state. Such efforts have helped ensure that patterns of participation by males and females in the labour market are monitored and that inequalities are identified. In this regard, the UK's Equal Opportunities Commission, with financial support from the European Social Fund, has commissioned research to investigate male and female participation in the government sponsored Modern Apprenticeship. The aim of this paper is to describe the research undertaken between January and June, 2004 and to provide an analysis and discussion of the findings. The Modern Apprenticeship programme was introduced some ten years ago. One of its aims was to provide opportunities for young males and females to become apprentices in a variety of technical, craft and service sectors. The characteristics of apprentices, including their gender, have been collected as part of the ongoing collection of administrative data on the programme. They indicate that the proportion of males and females participating in each sector has remained largely static with traditionally male and female dominated occupations continuing to report very low rates of participation by the non-traditional gender. For example, 98 per cent of entrants to the Modern Apprenticeship in construction are male and 97 per cent of entrants in early years care and education (childcare) are female. During the last decade skills shortages in the UK have grown in traditional male engineering, scientific, technical and construction sectors. This has given rise to fresh concerns that girls, in particular, are missing out on opportunities to obtain the higher financial rewards associated with male dominated sectors. The research project is based, therefore, on a combination of economic and social justice rationales for addressing persistent patterns of gender inequality in the Modern Apprenticeship. The paper outlines how the research has examined the processes which underpin employers' and young people's decisions and indicates ways in which the powerful social, psychological and physical barriers to non-traditional choices might be challenged. It describes the project's focus on five sectors (construction, engineering, information technology, plumbing and child care) and how quantitative and qualitative data collection methods have been employed. These include interviews with key informant employers and training providers, group interviews with, and a survey of, young people aged 14 and 15, and a survey of employers recruiting Modern Apprentices. The paper also describes what has been learned from the final phase of the project which brings young people and employers together in workshops designed to improve their mutual understanding of the processes underlying occupational and gender segregation. It draws on the theoretical and research literature on gender and career to discuss and explain the findings and to identify strategies for tackling this deep-seated problem.