Jill of All Trades program continues to make an impact – GVCA

Read the full deConstructed news article by GVCA.

The Jill of All Trades program has continued to make an impact ten years after its founding. Launched in 2014, it introduces young women in grades 9 through 12 to the possibilities of a career in the skilled trades.

We caught up with Rosie Hessian, chair of Conestoga College’s School of Interdisciplinary Studies and Director of Jill of All Trades, to learn about the program’s impact across Canada and the U.S. and its plans to grow even further.

We last spoke with you after your Jill of All Trades event at Conestoga College. How has the last year been for the program? We have grown quite a bit! In 2023, we had eleven deliveries of Jill of All Trades events, ten across Canada and our first in the U.S. It was thrilling to have our first U.S. delivery at Owens Community College, just outside Toledo, Ohio.

We’re already a few months into 2024—what have been your highlights? We’ve brought on more sponsors this year and are excited about that. We have 17 deliveries planned in Canada and five in the U.S.

Are there differences in how you deliver Jill of All Trades in the U.S. versus Canada? The structure in the U.S. is slightly different from that in Canada, so it’s exciting to learn the nuances. They have career colleges, but they’re quite different from here. They are just as thrilled to have the events on campus—and they also open them to girls in high school.

How has the feedback been from students and the colleges? We hear stories from the participants—and it happens at every single event—that Jill of All Trades has changed their lives. Many of them tell us that they had no idea what the skilled trades were or the career opportunities available. These are “a-ah” moments that we love to hear.

One of the colleges mentioned that even their faculty and staff that participated said it was the best event of the year—and they want us back. They’re incredibly supportive because it is a day full of energy. Those girls are there to learn and are so open to the experiences and opportunities.

One of the barriers you mentioned the last time we spoke was having women tradespeople talk about their careers. How has that changed since the program’s launch? Our community partners, women electricians, plumbers, etc., are often past Jill of All Trades participants. They want to be role models for young women looking at the trades. That’s what was missing when we started in 2014. Today, it’s much different. It’s primarily women speaking in the workshops now. We can see that change at our events.

Representation is critical. How has this changed the events over the last few years? That was one of the challenges—just raising that awareness. There was no chat around the dinner table for a young woman to be able to ask about the trades. This is changing. The conversations are happening. We even notice this when our young women come to campus for the Jill of All Trades event. Right away, they start approaching employer booths, asking what their company offers them and what they need to progress in their career at that employer.

The sponsors said the questions were becoming more complex, so these conversations must be happening at home for these young women to have the confidence to go to these companies right away at a Jill of All Trades event and ask these questions.

It’s incredible progress that’s making an impact across Canada. Where do you think Jill of All Trades will be in the next ten years? We started to go across Canada in 2020, and we’ve had tremendous growth. In the next couple of years, we will have 25 events across Canada and 20 in the U.S. Beyond that, it will continue to grow. There is considerable interest, and we’re just starting the curve.