The Unlocking the Toolkit event in Winnipeg will give female Grade 5 and 6 students the opportunity to explore careers in the construction trades through activities and interactions with women role models.
The event aims to increase female representation in construction by encouraging young women to consider a career in the trades, jobs which are not traditionally held by women, explained Teri Urban, immediate past-chair of Manitoba Women in Construction (MWC), the group organizing the event in partnership with Manitoba Status of Women.
“We were told through studies that Status of Women has done that Grade 5 and 6 is the time to start showing girls about the different opportunities available to them,” said Urban.
“That’s why we’re targeting that age.”
The event will take place April 19 at the Winnipeg Construction Association. Three school divisions will be attending from Winnipeg and the surrounding area, with about 90 students expected to partake.
“It also gives women in this industry an opportunity to showcase to young females what a career in construction can be for a woman,” said Urban. “When we were all younger we never had that opportunity. Especially the ladies in the trades, they never had anyone telling them that if you like working with your hands and you like a challenging career that a trade could be a really good option for you.”
The day will feature interactive demonstrations facilitated by tradeswomen with seven stations where students will participate in hands-on activities such as carpentry, crane operation simulation, electrical, plumbing and pipefitting, masonry and engineering.
Activities include building little boxes, putting together a complete circuit to turn on a light switch, using pipes to make hula hoops, laying brick to help build a wall and using iPads to learn skills needed for the first day of work.
“The ladies that run the stations…I find them personally to be trailblazers,” Urban stated. “They buckled down, worked hard and persevered to become a tradeswoman and they did it without anyone telling them they can do it. I can see the empowerment in them when they get to tell the girls look at what I do and look at what you can do as well. You can feel the energy in the room.”
According to the MWC website, in Manitoba, women represent only eight per cent of the construction industry labour force with just three per cent in the skilled trades.
“It really gives back to our industry in a really great way, especially with the skills shortages that are coming. There is a huge population of women out there and it would be nice to be able to access that,” said Urban.
“Sometimes starting out as a carpenter, for example, to get your journeyperson ticket and then from there you can move up to a project co-ordinator, project manager, estimator, business owner. There is so much opportunity that we would like the educators and people who are helping these girls guide their paths know. Just because you want to go into a trade, doesn’t mean it has to stop there. It can expand into so many other things.”
The event also serves to inform teachers and guidance counsellors about the need to promote careers in construction to underrepresented groups, Urban explained. In addition to a presentation by Skills Manitoba, which aims to educate teachers and guidance counsellors about the apprenticeship program and what skills students need to go into the trades so they can take the necessary courses in high school to prepare for their future, this year’s program has been expanded to include a panel discussion with women from the construction industry speaking about their successes.
“We found that piece is missing,” explained Urban. “The guidance counsellors and teachers have never really had access to that information to find out that there are women working in the trades very successfully and the things it’s done for them personally and for their families and their careers.”
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