Status of Women committee  I do. I think the financial situation is definitely a barrier for some of our women, many of whom are single parents.

Status of Women committee  I do, and I find there's an aversion to trades and tools, and to potentially getting dirty, and things like that.

Status of Women committee  This is something we deal with for sure. We have found that working with the schools and working with the parents will help change that perception. A lot of it is not having enough role models out there for them to see women who have become successful. Regarding the makerspaces a

Status of Women committee  One of our women said her strategy is that in the first few days on the job she tries to swear a lot so they feel more comfortable around her, and they don't feel they have to tiptoe around her. She says then she lets up on it once they accept her as one of the crew.

Status of Women committee  We work a lot with local service providers and women's groups who deal with a variety of women, underserved women. We also talked to the head of income assistance in our province to see that the women who take the exploratory program are allowed to retain their benefits while the

Status of Women committee  It does.

Status of Women committee  I want to be clear that we have great retention while they're in programs. It's once they get on the job that retention becomes an issue. We're fortunate enough to have had nobody drop out of programs in this last fiscal year, which is the first time. We do have the odd ones drop

Status of Women committee  They have. It is a part of it sometimes. It's not just with the employers; it can sometimes be in the institutions as well, where women are maybe not perceived as taking it seriously. They've had comments such as that maybe they are there to find a husband more than to be a wel

Status of Women committee  One of the things we've heard is that if an employer is hiring a woman, everybody on that crew gets a call the night before with a heads-up that there will be a woman on site the next day. So the women have told us that when they come on site everyone says hello and then they cle

Status of Women committee  I think we need to engage industry in providing those mentors themselves. We hire mentors from industry to work with our women, but once they leave us and get onto the job site, they're floundering a little bit. They're used to having a lot of support and someone to go to with qu

Status of Women committee  That's right.

Status of Women committee  We do.

Status of Women committee  We ask for about $750,000 per year to train 110 women.

Status of Women committee  The main focus is the trades area of our college. It's over 50 years old. When they built for trades 50 years ago, they didn't consider women joining. It was built for a very narrow population. With this expansion, everything will be not only bigger but newer. There will be provi

Status of Women committee  It's specific to women in skilled trades. That link is from the industry training authority of British Columbia. They have developed this guide through consultation and a lot of going out to the communities. I've read through it, and it's actually a guide to make workplaces bette