Placements have started for 12 Thunder Bay students participating in Confederation College’s Women in the Trades Program.
The eight-week placement portion of the program offers students the opportunity to gain work experience with top industry partners after successfully completing their 13-week classroom and hands-on studies.
“Everyone in the (Thunder Bay) course has been offered a placement, and the partners have been phenomenal,” said Nick Iachetta, Confederation's associate dean of workforce development. “We’re turning out high-quality apprentices.
“We’ve had the Thunder Bay Truck Centre take on students, Impala Canada's Lac des Iles Mine, and Intercity Power Sports. There will be a lot of good opportunities coming out of this.”
So far, feedback from students has been positive.
“I loved it. Everything about the program was great,” said Mackenna Coulson, who started her placement at Lac des Iles at the end of September.
“It got me ready for the workforce because it was Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., so it felt like it was a job, and I enjoyed going to that job.”
The program is also currently training two other cohorts in outlying areas around Thunder Bay, offering spots for 15 students at three different campuses, for a total of 45 possible students. The second cohort began classroom studies in mid-September at the Northshore campus in Marathon with a roster of 15 students, and the Rainy River District campus in Fort Frances had a roster of 11 students.
“There’s a shortage of skilled labour and the outlying communities are growing, so we want to do our part to serve them, too,” said Iachetta. “The uptake has been fantastic.”
The program was designed for women aged 17 to 29 who have an interest in gaining a foothold in the trades industry. Funding from the Ministry of Labour, Immigration, Training and Skills Development provided free tuition and books for all students, and students receive a $100 weekly living allowance.
Before going to placements, students participate in the trades readiness section of the program, where they are provided with academic upgrading and hands-on employability training, including an academic math refresher, career planning, and safety training.
They complete hands-on modules in areas such as fluid power systems, engine systems, and electrical systems.
“I really liked the hands-on shop work, like working on engines and drivetrains,” said Coulson. “That’s where I learned the most.…The shop portion also helped me bond with the students and teachers more. It was a great experience.”
After classroom work is completed, the paid job placements prepare students for jobs as heavy duty equipment technicians, welding technicians, or construction and maintenance workers. The placements can also prepare students for further apprenticeship opportunities that lead to journeyperson status in various trades.
Coulson is one of four students to land a placement at Lac des Iles, an open-pit and underground palladium mine located 85 kilometres north of Thunder Bay, where she'll be shadowing a heavy-duty equipment technician.
“It’s a very good mine,” she said. “I’ve never worked in mining before and I wanted to test out the waters. I think I’ll really enjoy camp life. My brother-in-law is a driller, and he loves it.”
The placement program also includes funding for travel, Iachetta noted. The aim is to make sure students are “market-ready” after completing the program.
Its goal is to provide a solution for the lack of skilled labour in northwestern Ontario.
The region has high unemployment rates, and the demand for skilled labour is “well beyond” what can currently be filled, Iachetta said.
“We already have a 30 per cent shortage of labour, and will be short at least 5,000 people over the next two years,” he said.
“The population in general is undereducated, and there are gaps. We’re building a self-sustaining ecosystem and building people up so they can support other people.”
Iachetta hopes one way to bridge the gap and create community support is to offer more equitable opportunities for women in the trades.
“I think the opportunity we are providing will change the way people look at (the trades). Trades in general have been male-dominated.… We need to start getting creative and being responsive to what the industry needs.”
The program also creates opportunities for female instructors; in Marathon, a female Red Seal technician runs the course.
Having visible female mentors enables students to envision themselves in those roles, Iachetta said.
“We had a female instructor for welding,” said Coulson. “She was great. It was really nice having a woman instructor who could understand the struggle of trying to break into a male-dominated workforce.”
​Coulson said she’s passionate about building a community of other women working in the trades because she enjoys the work so much.
“I love the work I’m doing, and I know a lot of other women would enjoy it. My dad is a contractor. I started working with him at (his company) M&M Coulson. I always liked what he did.”
Growing up, Coulson said she did not realize there was a lack of women working in the trades, and when she realized it was not a common job, she didn’t understand why.
“It was shocking to me that nobody wanted to go into the trades industry, and everyone is so surprised when I tell them that I do,” she said. “I want to break that idea.
“It’s very hard for women working in a male-dominated workforce, and I don’t think it should be like that anymore.”
