After a successful workshop at Southern Okanagan Secondary School in Oliver, the Women In Trades workshop took on the Osoyoos Secondary School with 14 students for two days of woodworking, welding and plumbing.
The program initially started out as an IT initiative, but grew to do similar events in elementary school and then high school.
Boyd Turnbull, who teaches metal shop, woodworking, automotive, and robotics, said that they tried to look at the target audience of when students are making career choices, which is at the Grade 10 level.
“So we started with the Grade 10 girls, and we set up the event to follow their timetable. We have the CNC (computer numerical control) machines at both places, we had the little bench that we could make, and then we’re going do some electrical and some plumbing,” said Turnbull.
The workshop consists of four projects which encompass welding, woodwork, plumbing and electrical work.
He explains that in his regular Grade 11 and 12 shop classes, which include a total of 60 students divided into three classes, there’s only five girls.
Seeing how women are disproportionately represented in the trades industry, but also just in high school shop classes, the workshop primarily acts as a stepping stone to first make the girl comfortable within the space and introduce them to different skills within trades.
Eliminating the boys from being in this workshop, Turnbull said, helps to make the experience less intimidating for the girls because “a lot of times you see, even the girls that are in here, the boys are always trying to take over what they’re doing.”
When they come into the shop in the morning, they’re all quite timid and shy, being unfamiliar with the space, said Turnbull.
By the afternoon, you can see the change.
Jasmeen Brar welds a Mother’s Day gift for her mom during the Women In Trades class. Neha Chollangi photo
“You can judge by how they move in the shop, right? When they start floating and using the shop, they’ve calmed themselves down and they’ve adapted to it. They’re comfortable in here,” said Turnbull.
By the end of the first day, all the students used the miter saw. Some of them welded. And they’ve all used the drill press while the teachers watched over them.
Vriti Bakshi, Grade 10 student, was part of the cohort in the workshop. She admitted that although she didn’t quite expect to like it at first, it’s been a lot of fun.
“It’s funny, because before we came to school, me and my friends were talking, and we would love to take things like autoshop but there are so many boys in the class. If we’re the only ones, it would be kind of scary,” said Bakshi.
Out of the four projects the students were working on, Bakshi said welding was her favourite. “I think welding was a really cool experience. I feel like just watching the plasma machine . . . that was really interesting.”
Turnbull is confident in his hopes that at least one student in the workshop will really enjoy the experience enough to potentially change their career goals. Perhaps instead of going into the sciences because they think they need to be a doctor, they’re going to go into computer numerated control and run a CNC machine, he said.
“When these kids are making career choices. A lot of times they don’t know what they don’t know . . . so the more they can explore and see just different types of jobs that get done in this world, the better it is for them, because it just opens their eyes and gives them choice,” said Turnbull.
Though schools, for many years, promoted the university pathway, Turnbull says that’s not for everybody.
“The ones that don’t fit that mold were never talked to about the trades, are never shown about the trades, they’re never shown that this is a different avenue because it’s very similar [problem solving] skills. And you need problem solving skills to work.”
