Sherry Holmes: Framing the Trades in a New Way

Pre-apprenticeship programs, offered at colleges such as Skilled Trades College (in Vaughan and Mississauga, Ont.), provide hands-on training in a simulated construction environment. Tony Martella, campus dean of Skilled Trades College, Vaughan Campus, states that the college had considered running women-only trades classes. “But women told us that they did not want to be in a class of all women,” Martella says. “They want to learn in a real-time environment.” Over the last three years, Martella estimates that out of 800 students who attended the college, approximately 12–15 were women.

Stephanie Brown, who went through the 12-week electrician pre-apprenticeship course at Skills Trade College, is now in her second year of a five-year electrical apprenticeship. At the college, Brown was one of three girls in a class of 14. “The first day of class might have been a shock for the guys, to see not just one girl, but three of us,” she says. “I was definitely intimidated that first day, shaking in my boots. But the teacher was fantastic………..”

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