The first ever Girls in Trades event on Feb. 23 gave young female students a taste of working in the trades thanks to Thompson Rivers University (TRU) in Williams Lake.
Over a hundred Lake City Secondary - Columneetza campus Grade 7 students participated in the event, part of the Youth in Trades Program, spending a day trying out three of four trades-based activities: carpentry, electrical, welding and mechanical.
There were two full days of Youth in Trades events, including a school-wide tradesperson day on Feb. 22 at Columneetza in which tradespeople visited classrooms to answer questions and have conversations about their professions.
“It was a great conversation week for all of the students to be exposed to different career/life possibilities,” noted Alana Meyer, the applied design, skills and technology teacher for school district 27, who organized the event. Meyer is also a certified shop teacher.
On Feb. 23, the female-identifying students went down the street to TRU where they could build a bird feeder, put together an extension cord, weld a boot scraper or learn some basic mechanical skills, including patching tires and removing and replacing lug nuts.
While the Youth in Trades Program in school district 27 has been going on for over a decade, this was the first time a day was set aside at TRU for only girls, but it had been done in other school districts.
“I know how much I love the trades and hands-on doing,” said Meyer, who wanted to give the female students their own time at TRU. Meanwhile, the Grade 7 boys were working on a carpentry project at Columneetza.
“It’s very fulfilling and inspiring to watch them,” said Meyer.
Read more: Youth Discover the Trades coming up in February for SD27 students
While the Youth in Trades program was open to young female students, she said often what would happen when it was co-ed was the boys would step up and take over, the female students would step back.
She said while many of the female students are a bit afraid at first, when they try it, they really enjoy it.
“You’re always trying to change stereotypes, whether you’re alert to them or not,” said Dave Corbett, the Careers Program coordinator for school district 27. He said the program just helps to spark kids to think about trades or other options.
Student participants Avery MacDonald and Sofie Passeri both said they enjoyed the carpentry project the most and the biggest surprise for them that day was to learn that less than four per cent of the workers in trades in Canada are women.
There were about 30 TRU trades students volunteering and 30 tradespeople volunteering to support the event.
Red Seal welder Ashley Langan was volunteering her time to support the Girls in Trades event.
Langan said she knew she always wanted to be in the trades and had a strong role model in her mom who is a Red Seal heavy duty mechanic. She found her calling in welding after taking a course in Kamloops called Mind over Metal.
She knows she was fortunate to have the exposure as a younger woman to the trades and wanted to share that opportunity with others.
“I think it’s very beneficial to help them choose, I was about their age when I learned my trade,” she said.
Another young woman helping out with the students’ experiences was Bethany Pannekoek, who is an electrical student at TRU and also a Grade 12 student through the Youth Training in Trades Program.
“I was very excited for this,” said Pannekoek, pointing out she isn’t that far away from them in age. “A lot of the girls were just super on the ball.”
Mike Shields, the heavy equipment technology instructor at TRU said he has been involved in the experiential program every year since it began.
He said one of the selling points for getting young people interested in the trades is the ability to “earn as you learn.”
Read more: Students awarded cash as Youth Work in Trades incentive
ruth.lloyd@wltribune.com
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