Evidence of meeting #56 for Status of Women in the 41st Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was girls.
A recording is available from Parliament.
12:15 p.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Actua
That statement would be true for all kids.
12:15 p.m.
Conservative
Pat Perkins Conservative Whitby—Oshawa, ON
So it's not that it currently exists for boys and not for girls.
12:15 p.m.
Conservative
12:15 p.m.
Conservative
Pat Perkins Conservative Whitby—Oshawa, ON
When you said it, I thought I certainly hope that's not the case.
12:15 p.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Actua
Although I do think that there's evidence that boys are more engaged in technology. They're kind of translating the opportunities to take things apart and play with things and tinker around to computers.
The same challenge we had with girls not having those opportunities is now absolutely translating to girls lacking exposure and experience with computers.
12:15 p.m.
Conservative
Pat Perkins Conservative Whitby—Oshawa, ON
Years ago, when I was involved in a health and social committee, there was dialogue about the school system and what it did in terms of introducing girls and boys to things at age-appropriate times. You said that the majority of the primary teachers tend to be women and that there needs to be a bit of a focus on what they might want to do to help make the change.
When we were having this dialogue a few years ago, they were talking about those primary years. They're focused on colouring within the lines and doing small motor skills and a lot of finicky little things that perhaps don't fall into the area of interest for some of the young boys, who perhaps want to be kicking a ball or doing something a bit more gregarious. They said that things changed as they got a bit older. The girls were doing all of these quiet little tasks, and then once they got to be in about grade five or grade six, there was a shift in what they were learning. It then became more interesting to boys.
Have you ever looked into that study to find out whether in fact there is any connection?
12:15 p.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Actua
No, I haven't seen that study in particular. But certainly we find with regard to computer science that there is an equal level of interest from girls and boys right from the start. We have seen no difference in girls wanting to get in and actually produce their own technology. In fact, from our perspective, girls tend to understand more quickly that there's a behind-the-scenes part.
We say all the time that kids are so great at using technology. We need to take the time to actually tell them who builds that technology and how it functions. We're not seeing any difference there and there's an opportunity as well with technology to engage them in a whole bunch of different subject areas. It isn't just about computers; it's cross-cutting.
12:15 p.m.
NDP
The Chair NDP Hélène LeBlanc
Thank you very much.
Ms. Crockatt, I yield the floor to you and you have five minutes.
April 28th, 2015 / 12:15 p.m.
Conservative
Joan Crockatt Conservative Calgary Centre, AB
I want to thank all of our witnesses.
For me, this is a fabulous panel. It's kind of a Kodak moment in this study, because all three of you have represented all of the issues we've been dealing with regarding how women and young girls need to be engaged so we can get more women into skilled trades. I think there have been some particularly strong pieces of evidence from all three of you that have helped us.
Jennifer, you said that every career is going to involve computers, and in fact it probably does right now, and if girls don't learn to code the language of computers, they will be left behind. It should probably be seared on the minds of every parent raising a young girl these days that this is a critical component of their education.
I wanted to kind of take off from that, and I actually wanted to clarify something that madame Sellah said. I think she stated that this budget has nothing in it for skilled trades. Nothing could be further from the truth. Just last week I participated in an announcement at Ottawa Hydro here about giving another $300,000 to try to improve things for women in skilled trades. We've been talking about the components. Awareness is also a really big component.
Can you talk about what you think we should be doing? Is it more programming of the kind you're currently seeing? Is it awareness? Is it something we need to do with parents? I'd like to start with Jennifer and just go across, please.
12:20 p.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Actua
I think the point you led off with about the complementarity of this panel is exactly it. We're working at a very early phase, and then Nancy is working a little bit later although doing some work earlier, and then Ryan is working with industry. And I think we all tend to be so focused on the group we're working in that we forget about making those kinds of connections along the whole pipeline.
Collaborations between groups that are working at different points in the pipeline to get girls engaged, keep them engaged, retain them in the workforce, and support them there are absolutely critical. I think the approach here is very innovative and it's less siloed by age group and sector. I think that is critical, and I think there are a lot of models out there that demonstrate success in this area that could be scaled up with additional resources.
Some people are doing it well, and I'd like to think we are. We are constantly innovating our approach because we're very connected to community. I think the innovation comes from models that have a large evidence base already.
12:20 p.m.
Program Administrator, Women in Trades Training, Kelowna Campus, Okanagan College
We agree and have much of the same process. We're very much in touch with our community and we are always looking to adapt and change things up to stay relevant and effective in our community, but as far as increasing awareness goes, I'd like to see more role models brought out in front of women and in front of everybody. We should celebrate some of the successes of women who have risen through the ranks in STEM and in trades careers. That is still one of our biggest challenges. If they see women doing these types of employment, if they see people doing these things, they will perhaps be able to imagine themselves doing them, but if they have never seen a woman doing plumbing, they are very unlikely to choose that for their career.
We do a lot of celebrating the success of our women and we are fortunate enough to have success stories within every trade and we try to highlight them. We have a wall of fame for which we take a picture of somebody at their job and do a little write-up. So if someone approaches us and is interested in becoming an electrician, we can say, “Come outside and look at all these women who have come before you and have become electricians and see what really interesting and varied employment they've been able to get”. Sometimes people have limited thinking about what a plumber might do without seeing the huge range of different jobs they could have with that trade.
12:20 p.m.
Conservative
Joan Crockatt Conservative Calgary Centre, AB
Maybe you could share some of those success stories with us and we could help to get that message out.
12:20 p.m.
Program Administrator, Women in Trades Training, Kelowna Campus, Okanagan College
I would love to.
12:20 p.m.
Executive Director, Mining Industry Human Resources Council
I agree with what Jennifer and Nancy just said. I think it's bang on. We do a lot of celebrating some of those successes as well, but clearly more needs to be done.
Just to give you one example, a few weeks ago, a Canadian mining company painted a 400-ton truck pink. It was a big Caterpillar truck, and they painted it pink because they wanted to celebrate the success of their female drivers who were operating their truck, as I think was mentioned earlier, more efficiently, safely, and with less wear and tear on the material. It was a way to try to demonstrate an engagement with women and promote the success that women are having in the workplace.
12:20 p.m.
Executive Director, Mining Industry Human Resources Council
It was Goldcorp. It was done at a Goldcorp mine in Mexico, but it is a Canadian company, and it's something they wanted to highlight as part of their strategy in Mexico.
12:20 p.m.
NDP
The Chair NDP Hélène LeBlanc
Thank you.
On this happy note, we'll conclude this round.
Mr. Simms, you have five minutes.
12:20 p.m.
Liberal
Scott Simms Liberal Bonavista—Gander—Grand Falls—Windsor, NL
Thank you.
Ms. Flanagan, earlier you had three recommendations. Could you highlight those three recommendations again? I found them very interesting.
12:25 p.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Actua
The first one was about recognizing computer science and digital skills as an essential literacy, as a prerequisite now to actually getting girls engaged in STEM.
12:25 p.m.
Liberal
Scott Simms Liberal Bonavista—Gander—Grand Falls—Windsor, NL
I'm sorry if I interrupt, but I only have five minutes.
I find that in many rural areas, access is the question. It's a necessity. Should government be doing more to make sure that access is universal? Meaning that in libraries and in schools—
12:25 p.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Actua
There's some excellent work under way. We get this question a lot: what about rural areas or isolated areas that don't have access? That access is changing quickly. Libraries are among the most highly equipped facilities now in terms of technology, and that's happening right across the country. That's excellent, because this access is absolutely vital.
Computer science can also be taught with no computers, with no hardware, and so we do a lot of our work.... We call it “computer science unplugged”. Teaching computational thinking and the concepts behind computer science without even touching technology is a much more effective way to start teaching this before kids get into the games and the actual consuming part.
There are things that we can do now. We get this question about the north and how there's no connectivity. Are we putting the cart before the horse? Absolutely not, we can get these kids fully engaged while we catch up with access.