VAUGHAN, ONT. — As major infrastructure projects ramp up in Ontario, apprentices and even pre-apprentices in carpentry armed with the right attitude and a developing skillset can bet on job opportunities in formwork.
Some of those young workers will be women, thanks largely to training courses in formwork, such as a seven-week course offered at the College of Carpenters and Allied Trades (CCAT) in Vaughan, Ont.
“It prepares them for on-the-job experience,” explains Cristina Selva, the CCAT’s executive director, about the formwork course launched in 2006.
The course operates on two levels, one for pre-apprentices to prepare them for work as soon as possible and the second for students already in the apprenticeship program.
Selva says “a very pleasant surprise” is that the course has proved “a very effective recruitment tool for young women coming into general carpentry, apprenticeship and the trade…right through to completion of their Red Seal.”
In 2016, two graduating carpenters were women who started years earlier as pre-apprentices in the formwork program. Graduates in 2017 included another woman who began her career in the program.
“Up until then, it was virtually unheard of to see this kind of career path for women,” says Selva.
While formwork systems are lighter and easier to handle than they were a decade or two ago, the CCAT executive director says another reason women might consider choosing formwork is because the construction culture is now more accepting of their gender.
Selva adds women are more apt to sign up and stay in the trade because the CCAT employs five women instructors who act as mentors, helping young apprentices handle ”the rougher spots that they face onsite, for example.”
She says women “trailblazers” can be role models who can provide “tremendous encouragement” for apprentices, she adds.
“If we were to get all of our female carpenters in a room at once, the thing that would strike most people is that they defy all the stereotypes,” she states, adding, “we have every size, shape, ethnicity and age doing this work.”
When Selva talks to high school students about what it takes to succeed as a carpenter, she emphasizes the need to be physically fit. It’s not necessarily about strength.
Sean Blake, business representative for Carpenters’ Local 27, adds one of the lessons learned while taking the formwork course is how to safely lift and carry materials and tools.
“When the apprentice goes to work they perfect those skills until they become habit,” he explains.
Local 27 formwork representatives Chris Campbell and Horacio Leal say the course was developed at the request of Local 27 forming contractors to provide practical training.
Selva advises young women apprentices to not limit themselves to jobs in one area of carpentry such as formwork because an array of experience over their apprenticeship will open doors to supervisory positions.
“At the end of the day, contractors want and need people that can do the job,” says Selva, noting every time a woman enters the field she stands to break the gender bias.
Recent Comments
comments for this post are closed