North Okanagan high school girls rolled up their sleeves for a preview of the trades programs awaiting them at Okanagan College's Vernon campus.
According to the Canadian Apprenticeship Forum's National Strategy for Supporting Women in the Trades, just 4.5 per cent of students in apprenticeship programs in construction, manufacturing and transportation trades from 2014 to 2018 were female. The goal put forward by the forum is to increase that number to 15 per cent by 2030.
To that end, Okanagan College Vernon hosted its first Jill of all Trades training day on Friday, Nov. 22, a chance for female students to experience trades programs before they graduate from high school and embark on their post-secondary education.
About eight per cent of Okanagan College students in non-traditional trades are female, according to trades and apprenticeship dean Stephen Speers, and the goal of Jill of All Trades was to boost those numbers.
Doing so would benefit the province given current widespread shortages of trades workers, said OC trades program administrator Kelsey Ross, who was the main organizer of Jill of all Trades at the Vernon campus.
"The Trades right now is one of the most high demand careers out there, and there's just not enough people working in the trades," said Ross. "And how we're going to fix that shortage is we need to get more women into the trades."
Jill of all Trades saw students take part in three workshops of their choosing. Workshops for eight different trades programs were on offer: automotive service technician, carpentry, electrician, auto body and collision repair, aircraft maintenance engineering structures, plumbing, refrigeration and air conditioning, and culinary.
A total of 65 female students from Grades 9 to 12 came from North Okanagan high schools to take part in the training day.
Among them was Sarah Foster. The Grade 11 student from Eagle River Secondary in Sicamous came to Jill of all Trades having been surrounded by the trades her whole life, with her father being an aircraft mechanic.
"I think (the trades) is a very good opportunity for me because I'm not really inclined to all of the other degrees that are out there," Foster said, adding she has her sights set on more "hands-on" work.
Foster believes women don't need to be confined to the social sciences, and appreciated having a day meant to broaden young women's horizons.
"I really enjoy stuff like this," she said shortly after taking part in the refrigeration and air conditioning workshop. It's a field her dad told her about while she was exploring future career possibilities.
"There's a lot of demand for this and it's really interesting as well, how these machines can purify or cool the air. It was really fun to learn."
While she's thought about becoming an electrician and at times leans towards a career in an auto body shop, Foster hasn't set any concrete career plans yet 鈥� and that makes her the kind of student Okanagan College is trying to engage with.
Foster said she'll be coming back to Jill of all Trades next year if the opportunity is available to her.
Taryn Ledrew, a Grade 10 student at Seaton Secondary in Vernon, said she signed up for the training day after taking a liking to woodworking class.
She was pleased with the chance to try new things at each of the workshops.
"(Jill of all Trades) is a really good opportunity to get women to just try it out. Even if they don't want to pursue it, it's still something they can then go and use," Ledrew said of the skills she learned on Friday.
It was the second Jill of All Trades day that Okanagan College has put on; the first was held at the 琉璃神社 campus in May, and Ross said the interest in trades programs coming from that event was "huge."
"There were a lot of women who came forward and said that it has opened their eyes to a career in the trades," she added.
Speers said the training day was a "tremendous" opportunity for young women to take advantage of the skills and expertise of a number of mentors who were on hand to help them through the workshops.
Some trades at OC are trending towards higher female enrolment, with record female participation in the automotive service technician program (27 per cent) and the plumbing and piping foundation program (30 per cent) for the winter semester starting in January.
The plan is to continue building on those trends by hosting more Jill of All Trades training sessions, with the next training day slated for May 2025 at the 琉璃神社 campus.
