Non-profit connecting women to the skilled trades expands to Sarnia

An Alberta-based non-profit organization has set up shop in Sarnia to help women pursue well-paying jobs in the skilled trades.

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Federal funding is helping Women Building Futures expand beyond Alberta, including Ontario where it is located in Sarnia.

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“It started 25 years ago with a group of social workers who wanted to help solve unemployment in women and offered a carpentry program,” said Rachel Veilleux, manager for external relations and growth in Ontario.

Since then, nearly 3,000 women have graduated from its trades readiness programs.

“Our mission, at the end of the day, is economic security for women,” Veilleux said.

“We’re very socially driven in the work that we do, and we work with women who are unemployed or underemployed working multiple jobs to make ends meet” with the aim of helping connect them “to careers that pay them a living wage,” she said.

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When Women Building Futures was planned to expand into Ontario, it looked at communities that could benefit from its work, Veilleux said.

“We ultimately landed on Sarnia-Lambton because it mirrors the heartland out in Edmonton, Alberta, and we have a lot of amazing partners out there that also have offices here.””

“It’s also a well interconnected community,” she said about Sarnia, where she worked previously at city hall. “It would do well supporting this kind of a mission.”

There are four staff members in the Sarnia area who began work in January.

Women Building Futures’ priorities include building awareness among women of opportunities in the skilled trades and offering readiness workshops, Veilleux said.

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“We’re also working with employers in the area that have like-minded inclusion initiatives and are hoping to build partnerships” while “looking to hire more women into their own workforces,” she said.

The organization notes women accounted for only 5.8 per cent of apprenticeship registrations in 2022, according to Statistics Canada.

“It’s a career path that hasn’t traditionally been presented to women,” Veilleux said.

“Often, what it comes down to is just lack of knowledge,” she said. “So that’s where our pre-introductory trades programs are so impactful and important for them to have the tools and the confidence to feel good about entering the trades.”

The program also connects women already working in skilled trades with women considering those jobs.

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“Ultimately, the support is enormous when it comes to women wanting to stay in a career in the trades,” she said.

Information about the program’s readiness workshops, as well as its efforts to expand in Ontario, can be found on its website, womenbuildingfutures.ca.

“If anyone has any questions, or is interested in partnership opportunities, I would love to have those further conversations,” Veilleux said.

“We’re very excited to be here,” she said.

“We already love this community very much and believe that this will be something that will do very well here, and we’re looking forward to working with more partners.”

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