Sarah Fourssman has a new confidence about her career future.
The North Vancouver resident is among the most recent batch of students to graduate from the Tradeworks Women's Workshop, a 10-week program that teaches women with barriers to employment qualifications in carpentry, first aid, forklift operation, and materials and safety.
"I'm really excited to learn more and I'm really glad that I did the program because for people who don't have a trades background or don't know a lot of people in the trades, it can be kind of confusing as to how to even get started," she says.
Students divide their time between the classroom and Tradeworks' 6,000-square-foot carpentry workshop located on Vancouver's Downtown Eastside. Though the program focuses on basic carpentry skills, Fourssman says it opens doors to a wealth of opportunity.
"It can be a jumping off point for any other trade," she says, explaining one of her cohorts has gone on to do an auto mechanic apprenticeship and another is pursuing landscaping. "So it's quite diverse."
Over the 10-week course, Fourssman developed a liking for cabinet-making and has enrolled in BCIT's Joinery Foundation program starting in 2014.
Before studying at Tradeworks, she was working in retail, but says she couldn't picture a longterm future in the industry. She knew she enjoyed working with her hands, but didn't have any experience in the trades.
"This is the first time that I've ever been in a shop environment like this. I've been curious about it for a long time but I've never gotten to do much handson, so this was a really great learning experience," she says. "It helped demystify some of what people need to know to be successful in the trades."
The program is a good way for women to "dip their toe" in the world of professional trades, she adds.
"It's really great to get into that with other women in areas that might be perceived more as men's work."
Tradeworks has been running employment training programs since 1994, working with two marginalized groups - atrisk youth and women with barriers to employment - with the goal of supporting them towards employment.
Maninder Dhaliwal, executive director of the program, says many of the female students are at first apprehensive about working in the trades.
"Whoever's thought of making things with their hands and thought this was a man's job, they should come in and give the program a try," she says.
B.C. is poised to experience a skills deficit by 2016, according to a Tradeworks press release, which goes on to say that women held barely one per cent of construction industry jobs in 2006, a percentage that has been fairly stable since 1991.
"Training 40 women per year, the Tradeworks Women's Workshop is working to change the gender divide and provides much needed skills to women entering the workforce," the release states.
