Grade 10 Mount Douglas Secondary student Lizzy World is already considering her career options, with midwifery and welding her top choices so far.
That’s underwater welding, to be precise, which can involve working with such things as pipelines and oil rigs. She heard about it from a relative and followed up with some research.
“I would want to do my welding class at Camosun first, work for a while and then do the midwife program at UBC afterward,” she said.
Lizzy was among about 160 female students in Grades 9-12 attending Camosun College’s annual Women in Trades and Technology exploration day on Thursday.
Students from five south Island school districts were involved — Greater Victoria, Saanich, Sooke, Gulf Islands and Cowichan Valley.
Lizzy said the prospect of working in the trades has interested her for some time. “Almost every year in middle school and now both high-school years, I have liked shop and automotive, so I’ve been learning more about hands-on trades.”
If that leads to an occupation that is so-called “non-traditional” for women, that’s great, said Lizzy, adding the fact that she has six brothers might have played a role in her interests.
Kyla McLellan, a Grade 12 at Reynolds Secondary, also attended Camosun’s trades and technology exploration day. She has already enrolled in Camosun’s visual-arts program for September, but took a Camosun course last year that provided an introduction to such disciplines as computer science, electronics and mechanical engineering.
“It was a six-week course and was a sampler of everything,” Kyla said. “It was an opportunity to try something new. If you get the chance, why not take that chance?”
Kyla said she could end up in a trade, but is intent on pursuing her interest in visual arts and drawing for now. “I also like the architectural side of things. I like to draw buildings.”
A major project for her at Reynolds has been a drawing of the Milan Cathedral, Kyla said. “It was a super-detailed building to draw.”
Both Lizzy and Kyla were in a Thursday-morning workshop in Camosun’s sheet-metal shop, where students were each given a rectangular piece of aluminum so they could make their own cellphone holders.
Instructor Justin Chappel put them through their paces, showing them the basics of taking a flat sheet of metal and turning it into a three-dimensional end product. “I figured they all have cellphones,” he said with a smile.
Chappel also let the students know they can make good money working in the trades — upwards of $100,000 a year with a first-year trade.
He said he just taught a welding class where four of 12 students were women, and has seen a definite increase in women in the trades since he was trained in the late 1990s.
Some classes that were all-male years ago are now around 20 per cent women, said Chappel, adding many trades are “screaming” for workers.
Thursday’s event was organized by the South Island Partnership, which brings together Camosun and the five school districts taking part. It gives high-school students the chance to spend time in college classrooms and earn dual credits that which can apply to both high school and post-secondary institutions.
More than 950 students are involved each year.
“The goal of the event is for students to be on campus and explore different trades and technology areas through hands-on activities,” said program director Nicola Priestley.
Priestley said the annual Statistics Canada Labour Force Survey shows the percentage of women in the trades is on the rise, from 3.9 per cent in 2018 to 8.7 per cent in 2022.
“We are seeing more women in trades, women in technology, but I think there’s still lots of work to be done.”
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