‘Jill of All Trades’ event encouraging girls to explore jobs in the trades

About 200 high school students learned about a career in trades, from electricians to ironworkers, at the “Jill of All Trades” event at NAIT.

The Northern Alberta Institute of Technology (NAIT) on Thursday hosted 200 female students, including some from Yellowknife, N.W.T., for a job fair focused on the trades.

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It was the fourth annual Jill of All Trades event, which is designed to foster interest among girls in Grades 9 through 12 about careers in the skilled trades.

Throughout the day, electricians, welders, plumbers, carpenters and more offered workshops for the attendees to learn more about their work.

“We learned how to make an extension cord. I learned about female and male ends on plugs… (and) using wire strippers,” said Christy Ndoro, one of seven students from École St. Patrick High School in Yellowknife.

The Grade 11 student is a member of a club called Skill Sisters, which shares a purpose with the Jill of All Trades event.

The Society for Canadian Women in Science and Technology sponsored the group’s trip to Edmonton.

“(Giving) them a female space where they can, in a judgement-free way, try out something new makes them more likely to pick a trades course later on,” said club supervisor and St. Patrick assistant principal Cindy Kimove.

“They have been talking about this for months. They couldn’t wait.”

Although Ndoro is aiming to become a civil engineer, another male-dominated industry, gaining trade experience is invaluable.

“It’s all life skills, basically, that I think end up being really useful. Especially when you save so much time, so much energy, lots of money, when you learn how to do these things on your own,” she told CTV News Edmonton.

The associate dean of NAIT’s School of Construction and Building Sciences said her heart was full seeing so many girls interested in trades.

“Over the last five years, we’ve increased the number of women apprentices…. That’s a direct result of events like this,” Laurel Tokuda said. “But the women apprentices are still only about 10 per cent, so this helps us to increase participation by women in the trades and to have viable careers for them.”

On Friday, the Yellowknife students will be passing on their own knowledge in a STEM workshop for a Grade 2 class.

With files from CTV News Edmonton’s Galen McDougall