BCIT hosted 150 girls from across Metro Vancouver in a “Jill of all Trades” event, in an effort to inspire more girls to enter the trades.
Tag: Jill of All Trades
BCIT encouraging more women to enter skilled trades
Jill of All Trades visits Ferris
Read the full article from The Ferris State Torch
With women’s interest in STEM on the rise, Ferris State University recently joined 18 other colleges across North America in hosting the Jill of All Trades™ event, a hands-on experience designed to introduce high school girls to careers in science, technology, engineering, and skilled trades.
Students from Big Rapids and surrounding areas explored Ferris’s lab spaces, engaged in interactive workshops, and heard from empowering speakers who emphasized the importance of women in traditionally male-dominated fields.
Organizers and participants alike highlighted the event’s role in breaking stereotypes, boosting confidence, and showing women that they belong in STEM.
The Jill of All Trades event shut down classes in the skilled trades colleges to provide tours, exploration and education of the opportunities Ferris offers. Photo by: Jordan Wilson | Multimedia Editor
Read the full article from The Ferris State Torch
Full article by Grace Heethuis on March 26, 2025
Jill of All Trades returns to Fanshawe
Read the full story from Education News Canada
Nearly 90 female high school students from London and surrounding regions got hands-on experience in skilled trades at Fanshawe College’s Jill of All Trades™ event on February 20. The immersive workshops introduced students to careers in electrical, plumbing, automotive, carpentry, and aviation composites, while also offering mentorship, networking, and a chance to explore Fanshawe’s facilities.
As part of a growing national movement to engage more young women in Red Seal trades, where females still represent just 8% of workers in Canada, Fanshawe’s event showcased both the exciting possibilities and real-world skills involved in trades careers.
Step Back, Jack: Jill of All Trades Wires the Workforce for Success
Read the whole story by Courtney Mullins from Insight to Diversity.
Jill of All Trades is an initiative launched in 2014 by Conestoga College in Ontario, Canada, to encourage young women to explore careers in skilled trades such as manufacturing, electrical work, welding, and automotive technologies. Despite growing demand for workers, women remain underrepresented in these fields. The program provides hands-on experiences guided by professionals, fostering confidence and interest among high school students.
Since its inception, Jill of All Trades has expanded significantly, partnering with 17 colleges across Canada by 2022 and reaching the U.S. in 2023 through Owens Community College in Ohio. Events at Owens have been successful, with a third planned for October 2024 and further expansion in 2025. By 2026, the initiative aims to reach 35 colleges across North America, host over 120 events annually, and inspire more than 10,000 participants.
The program’s impact is evident, with over 90% of participants expressing interest in skilled trades. Through mentorship, skill-building, and breaking stereotypes, Jill of All Trades is shaping a future where women play a vital role in traditionally male-dominated industries.
Read the whole story by Courtney Mullins from Insight to Diversity.
Okanagan College Vernon hosted its first Jill of All Trades day
Read the full Vernon Morning Star article.
North Okanagan high school girls rolled up their sleeves for a preview of the trades programs awaiting them at Okanagan College’s Vernon campus.
According to the Canadian Apprenticeship Forum’s National Strategy for Supporting Women in the Trades, just 4.5 per cent of students in apprenticeship programs in construction, manufacturing and transportation trades from 2014 to 2018 were female. The goal put forward by the forum is to increase that number to 15 per cent by 2030.
To that end, Okanagan College Vernon hosted its first Jill of all Trades training day on Friday, Nov. 22, a chance for female students to experience trades programs before they graduate from high school and embark on their post-secondary education…
Read the full Vernon Morning Star article.
Hamilton-area teen girls exploring trades at Mohawk College
Read the full Hamilton Spectator article.
As teenage girls practice welding techniques on simulators, sparks and imperfections that mimic real life are displayed on the screen above them. In other Mohawk College classrooms, they plug copper pipes into fittings to make cellphone stands and bend sheet metal into a neat rectangular box.
A growing number of women are choosing to work in male-dominated trades, and these Hamilton-area high school students could be part of the next generation.
About 170 students in grades 9 through 12 from schools in Hamilton, Halton, Niagara and Brant, Haldimand and Norfolk counties got to explore about a dozen hands-on college programs Wednesday for the annual “Jill of All Trades,” a daylong event hosted by institutions across Canada and the U.S., including Mohawk…
Read the full Hamilton Spectator article.
Owens Community College hosts ‘Jill of all Trades’ event
Cambrian College hosts annual Jill of All Trades event on campus
Read the full Education News Canada article.
In almost every region in Canada, there is an urgent need for more workers to fill well-paying positions in skilled trades and engineering technology.
That message was given loud and clear to female high school students today at the annual Jill of All Trades event held at Cambrian College.
Industry leaders, local sponsors, staff, and faculty from Cambrian College pulled out all the stops to showcase everything the skilled trades and engineering technology sectors have to offer young women considering their next steps after high school.
200 students from seven local high schools as well as from the Serpent River First Nation and the Nipissing/Parry Sound Catholic District School Board, took part in Jill of All Trades this year.
The students experienced trades and technology careers first-hand by taking part in hands-on activities and workshops in a number of Cambrian’s labs.
“Every year this event gets bigger and better,” says Renee Scott, Cambrian’s Director of Marketing, Recruitment, and Student Success. “This event is a win for everyone involved. Female students get an opportunity to explore good careers they may not have considered otherwise, and they are meeting women in the trades who can encourage and motivate them. Employers are already recruiting the next generation of talented employees, particularly young women. We also get to show the quality of the trades and engineering technology programs we have to offer, plus our campus experience.”
Cambrian College and select sponsors awarded seven $1,000 scholarships and two $500 scholarships to students who plan on pursuing careers in trades and engineering technology at Cambrian College.
…Read the full Education News Canada article.
Confederation College once again hosts Jill of All Trades Event
Read the full CBC News article by Nicky Shaw.
College works to empower the next generation of skilled female professionals in Northwestern Ontario
Hundreds of female high school students got their hands dirty in Confederation College’s Tec Hub for a Jill of All Trades event in Thunder Bay, Ont. this Wednesday.
They were there for a one-day event encouraging more women to go into the skilled trades by providing some hands-on experience. It is part of a larger nation-wide initiative to empower young women.
Students participated first-hand in three different workshops in different sectors of the trades. There were also mentorship sessions led by industry leaders and alumni and they were able to look at potential careers at a job fair.
Molly Forneri, a grade 12 student from Westgate High School, took part in the event because she’s looking into the trades for the future. She said she ‘really loves welding and really wanted to try it out.’
….Read the full CBC News article by Nicky Shaw.
Cambrian grad’s message to young women in trades: You can do it
Read the full Northern Ontario Business news article by Len Gillis.
Powerline tech’s message to young women in trades: You can do it
Lauren Schandlen addressed high schoolers during Cambrian College’s annual Jill of All Trades event.
More than 200 young women from across Greater Sudbury were at Cambrian College on Oct. 24 to hear stories of how more and more women are finding success in the industrial trades.
But for all the successes, there was also a story of overcoming a challenge.
One of the speakers was Cambrian graduate (2017), Lauren Schandlen, who is now a Red Seal powerline technician for Ontario Hydro. She has worked on hydro line repair jobs across Ontario, which included dangling from a helicopter to install hydro poles in remote locations.
Schandlen went to high school in Bracebridge and now lives in Orillia.
Most recently, Schandlen returned from working in Georgia and Florida, helping to repair hydro lines damaged by hurricanes there.
She also told a harrowing story of working on a frozen, icy hydro tower near Toronto a few years back.
Schandlen said she had climbed about a third of the way up, five storeys high, when she realized she could not reach up to the next spar. Schandlen said it was a terrible moment for her at the time.
“It was February, icy and cold. I made so many excuses in my head of why I couldn’t do it. I’m not strong enough, I’m too short, I’m tired, I can’t do it. As I sat there, 50 feet in the air, everyone else on my climbing crew was already at the tower. I looked down at the guys on the ground and started to tear up behind my tinted safety glasses,” she said… Read the rest of the Northern Ontario Business news article by Len Gillis.
Owens Community College encourages women to explore skilled trades
Read the full The Blade news article by James Trumm.
When CK Kramer talked with high school friends about going into the trades after graduation, they weren’t exactly encouraging.
“That doesn’t sound like a ‘you’ thing,” one of them said.
“My friends said it was a male-dominated profession and wondered where I would fit in,” young Kramer said. “They were also worried about me being in a toxic work environment. And I accepted that at first.”
But young Kramer’s friends are now more supportive as their classmate weighs the question of what path to take after graduation from St. Ursula Academy in May.
“I’m looking into everything,” young Kramer said. “I’m really interested now in operating drilling machinery.”
CK’s interest in the trades got a boost at the second annual Jill of All Trades event at Owens Community College on Thursday. The program seeks to provide young women in high school with hands-on experience in a variety of skilled trades, including advanced manufacturing, transportation, machining, robotics, diesel tech, auto repair, welding, crane rigging, pipefitting, electrical work, and other trades.
Founded in Canada in 2014 by Rosie Hessian, Jill of All Trades seeks to bring down the barriers that have kept women out of the skilled trades. It stresses hands-on experiences, said Ms. Hessian, the director and chairman of the school of interdisciplinary studies at Conestoga College in Kitchener, Ont.
By the end of this year, Ms. Hessian projects over 1,800 students will have participated in the program that promotes awareness of, experience with, and opportunities in the trades.
“There are barriers to the trades for women,” she said. “Many of them don’t have the experience or confidence to try to get in the door. But we want to stress to them that good opportunities are available.”
A variety of companies were present at the event to discuss those opportunities in detail, including Rudolph Libbe Group, The Andersons, First Solar, Hancock Steel, Dunbar, Advanced Technologies Consultants, the Mechanical Contractors Association of Northwest Ohio, and Buckeye Broadband.
Jamie Hooven and Bailey Phommalee work for Dunbar, a mechanical services specialty contractor.
“We’re hoping to get women interested in STEM and the trades in general,” Ms. Hooven said. “The biggest obstacle is that these are male-dominated professions.”
Ms. Phommalee is a pipefitter apprentice who has worked for four years with Dunbar and Local 50 of the United Association of Journeymen and Apprentices of the Plumbing and Pipefitting Industry. Her apprenticeship has one more year to go.
“Young people don’t see the trades represented in their schools,” she said, “but there are a lot of opportunities in this area. And we need young workers to pay the retirement costs of the older generation.”
“The most common question we get is how much money we make,” Ms. Phommalee said, “and the answer is about $50 an hour.”
Another exhibitor was Advanced Technologies Consultants, whose booth was manned by Chad Whited, the company’s director for business development.
“We like showcasing electrical equipment, automation, robotics, and augmented reality at these events,” he said. “We let the students play with the robotics and augmented reality stuff. We’re not really here to recruit employees for us, though. We’re here to build a bigger pipeline of people coming into these fields.”
Mr. Whited also talks to students about the stigma some people attach to the trades and jobs in the manufacturing sector… Read the full The Blade news article by James Trumm.
Giving girls a chance to try out the skilled trades – CTV News
Read the full CTV News Kitchener story by Ashley Bacon.
Hundreds of high school students visited Conestoga College’s Cambridge campus on Wednesday for ‘Jill of all Trades,’ a unique event that aims to inspire the next generation of female trades workers.
Skills ranging from welding to carpentry were on display for the nearly 300 young attendees.
Director Rosie Hessian said there’s a reason the event has grown and become more popular over the last decade.
“There are hands-on experiences in the shops,” she explained. “They get in there, they are doing something, making something, and they are so proud of that.”
“It’s really exciting to see all the opportunities that there are for women out there,” Marlowe, a Grade 11 student, said.
“I think I was more into the mechanics but I really like how it’s empowering women on all the trades,” added Ciara, another Grade 11 student.
“They told us about the different opportunities we could get and that there’s lots of benefits of working in trades,” Grade 12 student Bella said.
Hannah Passila made her second appearance at ‘Jill of all Trades,’ just one day before she moves to Kapuskasing to begin a plumbing apprenticeship.
She was hoping to inspire other young girls.
“I think the mentors are great, we have learned a lot from them and hopefully I can teach somebody today as well,” Passila said.
Back in 2014, 120 girls attended the inaugural event. Now, ‘Jill of all Trades’ hosts 18 different programs across the continent every year.
Organizers say this is their biggest year yet. Brandi Ferenc, a HVAC mechanic, has been participating in the event since it started in 2014.She said, when she began her career 20 years ago, she couldn’t even find work clothes that fit her properly. Now she’s seeing a sector shift to accommodate and nurture female workers.
“I go to many women in skilled trades events but nothing like this,” Ferenc said.“To be able to put the tools in their hands and see them come in a little apprehensive, maybe [thinking] I don’t want to do that, and then just watch how empowered they get.”
The hope is that it sparks inspiration for a whole next generation.
“You get dirty, you have fun and never work a job where you’re not having fun,” Passila said.