GUELPH – Hundreds of women and girls gathered at the Linamar headquarters on March 7 to celebrate International Women’s Day by highlighting women’s participation in skilled trades.
Skills Ontario organized two events throughout the day, the first aimed at Grade 11 and 12 students and the second aimed at celebrating women already working or training in the trades.
Both events included keynote speakers, and Skills Ontario’s Young Women’s Initiatives program manager Lindsay Chester said the speakers’ messages resonated strongly with participants.
“They got that sense of empowerment, realizing that they can do anything,” she told the Advertiser.
“That was really the take-away – that sense of ‘if they can do it, I can do it too.’”
The first keynote speaker was Emily Chung, an automotive service technician and automotive writer who owns and operates AutoNiche, a family-friendly auto repair shop in Markham.
Chung is also a teacher in the Automotive Business School of Canada at Georgian College and serves on the board of directors for the Automotive Aftermarket Retailers of Ontario.
For the evening portion of the event, the keynote speaker was carpenter Rokhaya Gueye.
She is the community partnership coordinator with the Carpenters’ Regional Council and founding chair of the Sisters in the Brotherhood committee at the Carpenters Union Local 27.
She also volunteers as a crew lead with Habitat for Humanity and builds playgrounds with Million Dollar Smiles.
The events at Linamar included a range of exhibitors and workshops outlining the day-to-day tasks of jobs in skilled trades, including:
– Women in Rail;
– Careers of the Future;
– Empowering Workers;
– Roller Coasters; and
– Pulling Wire.
Chester said she received a lot of positive feedback about both events, and Skills Ontario plans to host similar initiatives next year.
“One teacher said ‘I could fill this whole room,’” Chester noted.
Skills Ontario also organized online programming for International Women’s Day, which included a coding workshop aimed at Grade 7 and 8 students and a virtual series called “A Sit Down With…”
The virtual series highlighted women working in the skilled trades and technologies, including Gueye, Joanne Osowe, who spoke about her work in renewable energy, and Stephanie McLean, who shared her experience working as an electrician.
“International Women’s Day is a day to stand together in unity, supporting all women and encouraging them to follow their passions and to excel,” Chester said.
