Female students from across Upper Grand District School Board were at Guelph’s Frank Hasenfratz Centre of Excellence on Nov. 23 to learn more about careers in technology and the skilled trades.
Nearly 120 students from the Upper Grand and Wellington Catholic District School Boards spent the day in hands-on workshops, networking with local women currently working in tech and the trades.
Skills Work! For Women is one of Skills Ontario’s Young Women’s Initiatives, and its goal is to open students’ eyes to the world of possibilities working in the trades.
On Monday morning, students were introduced to a wide variety of career options, from occupations that often come to mind when speaking about the trades (carpenter or electrician, for example), as well as careers they may not have previously considered a skilled trade, such as being a landscaper or hair stylist.
What these careers have in common, they learned, is that they all require technical knowledge, creative thinking, and dexterity and coordination.
Common myths about working in the trades were also busted, including that you don’t have to be smart to work in the trades and that going to university is the only way to get hired. Rather, employers are looking for candidates with a variety of educational background, including college programs and apprenticeships.
Students were taken through three workshops: introduction to hand tools, led by Kathy Clout, master electrician at Clout Industries; a carpentry workshop led by Conestoga College’s Michelle Devereaux; and a food processing workshop led by Conestoga’s Snezana Savic.
In the carpentry workshop, students were given the dimensions and building specs of a new home being constructed and had to calculate how much all of the needed materials would cost, from flooring and paint, to tile and trim.
In the afternoon, they met and networked with mentors working in the trades. Students were encouraged to ask their mentors questions about why they chose the career they’re in and what they learned when transitioning from high school to the working world.
Throughout the day, the young women were encouraged to think big and explore all of the options available to them in high school to when planning their career pathway.
Upper Grand offers four experiential programs that promote learning through experience: cooperative education, the dual credit program, the Ontario youth apprenticeship program, and the specialist high skills major program.
