CARM SUMMIT
Introducing the Office to
Advance Women
Apprentices – Manitoba
Submitted by the Office to Advance Women Apprentices – Manitoba
Today, women comprise approximately two to four per
cent of the skilled construction trades. The Office to
Advance Women Apprentices – Manitoba (Office) is
working diligently to help connect tradeswomen with industry.
In 2009, the first Office was opened in Newfoundland and
Labrador. At the time, the representation of women in the skilled
construction trades in that province was consistent with what is
seen across the country today. Eleven years later, the representation
of women in the skilled construction trades is now 13 per cent in
Newfoundland and Labrador. This is a model that works.
In 2019, Manitoba was the first Office outside of Newfoundland
and Labrador to launch. One year later there are a total of six
Offices operating across Canada. The Manitoba Office, through
funding from the Government of Canada’s Union Training and
Innovation Program and under the direction of Canada’s Building
Trades Unions is working hard to follow in Newfoundland and
Labrador’s footsteps.
The team in Manitoba is small, but mighty. Andrea Canada,
the project coordinator for the Office to Advance Women
Apprentices – Manitoba, spent 26 years working for Manitoba
Hydro in Aboriginal community engagement and trades recruitment.
Andrea also has experience in the construction industry
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