It’s an early Sunday morning in summer when 27-year-old Alexandra Kelloway sets out from home for work. She’s off to teach a basic scaffolding course to apprentice carpenters at the Carpenters’ Local 27 Training Centre in Woodbridge, Ont.
Kelloway is a part-time instructor at the training centre, teaching safe assembly/disassembly of scaffolding for the course put on every other month for apprentices.
From Monday to Friday it is another story. She can be found working full-time as a scaffolder just about anywhere in the Greater Toronto Area for her employer, Tower Scaffolding Services Inc., a major scaffolding contractor.
She started working for Tower when she was still a teenager in 2005 after completing her first term of apprenticeship in carpentry. Today, Kelloway is a journeyperson carpenter, with her sights set on rising through the ranks at the company to leadhand and foreperson as she gains experience in an industry uncommon for women.
How uncommon is this?
This year across Ontario 0.8 percent of all unionized carpenters (apprentices and journeypersons) are women. About two thirds of all women in the carpenters union in the province are members of Local 27, Kelloway’s home base.
The percentage of women in both union and non-union carpentry in Ontario was only 1.6 percent, according to the National Household Survey, conducted by Statistics Canada.
Kelloway breaks the mold of a carpenter in other ways. Petite and timid were words that described Kelloway when she signed up for apprenticeship a decade ago, says Cristina Selva, executive director of the Carpenters’ Local 27 Training Trust Fund Inc.
But that image proved deceiving.
"Thanks first and foremost to her own passion for the trade as well as the unwavering encouragement of mentors like her high school teacher, Archie McKean, Alex has gone on to do exceptionally well in her career," says Selva.
The fact she’s been with the same contractor for nine years is a testament to her durability in an industry where few carpenters stay that long with one employer. It is a testament to her competency and solid work ethic, says Selva.
"Scaffolding is a very tough field. It requires superior strength, physical fitness, and mental acuity to work with the many and varied systems out there."
Kelloway traces her beginnings back to a day in high school when she decided to take a class in woodworking.
"I loved it," she says, adding it was the inspiration for taking a pre-apprenticeship course in carpentry.
Her first job nearly 10 years ago was to help assemble bleachers at the Molson Indy for Tower.
"I guess they (Tower) figured I had good work ethic because they asked me if I wanted to stay on after that."
Five years later she passed her Red Seal exam to become a registered carpenter.
Scaffolding has proved a good fit for Kelloway.
"It is hard work but I like working hard and as I have gained experience I have got to do some pretty interesting jobs — some of which involve working at heights."
Take Tower Scaffolding’s contract at the Trump Tower in downtown Toronto as an example. There, she and others in the Tower crew were assigned to assemble scaffold cantilevered from a balcony to access the roof top, 60 floors above the street. The ultimate adrenaline rush.
The scaffolding industry has also proved to offer "a great learning experience," she says.
"Somebody who sees scaffolding on the side of a road or by a building might think it’s not that difficult, but I’ve found there is always something to learn and I’m still learning now. It can be pretty complex and challenging."
Selva says when the carpenters training centre had a scaffolding instructor position to fill, Kelloway was on the top of their list.
"We are very proud of Alexandra. She’s an exceptional carpenter and role model."
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