Some will leave the province, others will try to stay.
There is an increase in the female participation in non-traditional skilled trades in the province.
According to the website, WorkplaceMag, in 2009 Newfoundland and Labrador announced an initiative designed to increase the number of women registering for skilled trade programs.
The Department of Education signed a $100,000 contract with the Carpenters Millwright Union.
There are now organizations which promote women in trade fields.
The Office to Advance Women Apprentices, located in Paradise, is dedicated to ensure there are employment opportunities for female apprentices who have graduated from the various trades training programs. The office works with female apprentices once they complete their initial training in order to enhance their employment opportunities so they may progress through the apprenticeship program, with the ultimate goal of achieving journeyperson status.
Given the recent announcement of development of the Lower Churchill project, tradespeople are expected to be in high demand in the coming years. There are also mining opportunities presenting themselves across the province, such as iron ore in Labrador West.
The Western Star talked to three local women currently studying non-traditional trades. They are all anxious to enter the workforce, and excited about beginning their careers.
Welder willing to move to work
Tammy Saunders says she may have future prospects with welding as employment, but adds she will move out of the province if she has to.
“If I can’t get a job here, I will be going,” she said.
Saunders is studying welding at the College of the North Atlantic.
Most trade courses include a workterm, as does the welding program.
“I went to Western Steel last spring for two weeks,” she said. “I am hoping to get back there again this spring.”
Saunders, 36, took the orientation to trades and technology course for women last year.
“We were taken around and we got introduced to welding, electrical (and so on),” Saunders said. “We went all over Newfoundland and went to all the schools and got a feel for everything ... you get a taste for what it’s going to be like.”
Saunders was a stay-at-home mother and decided to do the course, which introduced her to welding.
“I got no fear of it or anything,” Saunders said. “You go and you’re in your shop and you do your thing. And it’s good money.”
Millwright wanted to get out of the office
Elaine Rumbolt is anticipating plenty of opportunity as a millwright.
She is originally from Labrador and had been in management at a long-term care facility for 13 years. She also was a payroll clerk for a few years.
“I kind of got tired of doing that,” she said. “I wanted to look at something totally different, that’s why I went to the trades.”
Rumbolt, 42, is studying the millwright course at the College of the North Atlantic.
“With upcoming developments that are in Labrador, there are more opportunities to return home and gain a good job, hopefully, and earn a good living.”
She says she may have future prospects lined up after the course.
“I’m looking at some stuff,” she said.
“Especially now with female apprentices, a lot of employers throw out a lot of incentives out there.”
She said she will not move out of the province to find work.
“I still have dependents that I have to care for,” Rumbolt said. “Even if I didn’t have small kids at home I don’t think I want to leave the province ... I’d rather stay home.”
Rumbolt says it is a good time to be a female in the trades.
“Doors are opening up for women now — more so than ever,” she said. “There’s more promotion, women getting into trades and this kind of stuff. I’ll do great.”
Glad she was introduced to welding
Nikki Huxter could not be happier to study welding, even if she stumbled into it by accident. She met a friend in Whistler, B.C., who introduced her to the trade.
Huxter, 20, took the nine-month welding program at Academy Canada.
She is now finishing a workterm with Western Steel.
She says she has future prospects lined up afterwards.
“I do plan on getting my journeyman, and I eventually want to open my own welding shop,” she said.
Huxter says she is unsure where her career will take her.
She also says she will move out of the province to seek work.
