CBTU Launches Project to Increase Women in the Trades by 30%

Feb 24, 2019

Over a period of 42 months, Canada’s Building Trades Unions (CBTU) will provide 750 women apprentices, including approximately 100 Indigenous women in Nova Scotia, Manitoba and Saskatchewan, with career services, employment assistance and networking opportunities to complete their training and obtain their Red Seal certification so they can work anywhere in Canada.

In the process, the program will engage and build partnerships with over 75 key stakeholders including employers, unions and training providers to improve participation and success of women in the trades. The program will also develop and maintain a registry database to track services provided and apprenticeship numbers of tradeswomen.
To sustain the project, from Employment and Social Development Canada is providing $3,141,000 in funding over three years.

“Canada’s Building Trades Unions are committed to making a career in the skilled trades open for everyone, and with the support of the federal government, the Office to Advance Women Apprentices will identify barriers, track and measure success and work with tradeswomen in Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Nova Scotia to increase their chances for success,” says Robert Blakely, Canadian Operating Office, Canada’s Building Trades Unions. “Today in the construction industry, women represent approximately four per cent of the workforce. Where the OAWA currently exists in Newfoundland, that number sits at 13 per cent, a successful model that we will replicate.”
Photo curtesy of the Western Resources Center for Women in Apprenticeship’s Tradeswomen Image Library. Find out more about the centre: http://womeninapprenticeship.org