The CWB Association Welding Podcast
The CWB Association Welding Podcast
Replay with Allison Zerr and Max Ceron
The CWB Association brings you a weekly podcast that connects to welding professionals around the world and unrepresented communities as we continue to strive for a more diverse workforce. Join us as we celebrate National Volunteer Month to showcase the incredible contributions of our Chapter Executives from across Canada and globally.
Please note this episode is a replay, bringing you a blast from the past.
When Allison Zerr swapped her accounting books for a welder's mask, little did she know she'd be igniting a trail for women in the trades. This episode brings you the remarkable journey of Allison, from her small-town roots to leading the Women in Trades program, where she unwraps the challenges she faced, the stereotypes she shattered, and the ceilings she broke – not just glass, but steel too. Her story isn't just about defying odds; it's a beacon for anyone who's ever felt the tug to take the road less traveled in their career.
Follow Allison:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/allison-zerr-a5637b278/?originalSubdomain=ca
WITT Program : https://saskpolytech.ca/programs-and-courses/resources/women-in-trades-and-technology/
https://www.facebook.com/SKPolytechWITT
Find your Local CWBA Chapter Here: https://www.cwbgroup.org/advocacy/membership
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There is no better time to be a member! The CWB Association membership is new, improved and focused on you. We offer a FREE membership with a full suite of benefits to build your career, stay informed, and support the Canadian welding industry. https://www.cwbgroup.org/association/become-a-member
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All right, I can check. Check, I'm good. So I'm Max Duran. Max Duran, cwb Association Welding Podcast. Pod pod podcast. Today we have a really cool guest welding podcast. The show is about to begin. Attention welders in Canada Looking for top quality welding supplies, look no further than Canada Welding Supply. With a vast selection of premium equipment, safety gear and consumables, cws has got you covered. They offer fast and reliable shipping across the country. And here's the best part, all podcast listeners get 10% off any pair of welding gloves. Can you believe that? Use code cwb10 at checkout when placing your next order. Visit canada welding supplyca now canada welding supply, your trusted welding supplier. Happy welding welding.
Speaker 2:I'm very well, max. Thank you. How are you? A little frosty, but I was figuring I had the chance to chat with you this morning. So I woke up with a positive attitude and I'm looking forward to this. Nobody wants to hear that from me, max.
Speaker 2:So actually I was born in Medicine Hat. I was born in Alberta, but I was raised in a very small town, richmount, saskatchewan, so about 10 minutes from the Alberta border. I did grow up in town, a community of about 200 people, so very small farming community. But yeah, I grew up with the boys. There was a majority of children my age were all boys. So I grew up, you know, building forts and playing in the dirt and with trucks and whatnot. We grew up. We had to take shop class, we had to take home ec. Basically, school wanted to prepare us for everything. So grew up doing all that and then decided after I graduated I moved up to Saskatoon. I was going to be an accountant and I was. I was going to be an accountant, max.
Speaker 2:I, I love, I loved math. I did very well in math. Um, the only problem with that was I never learned how to study in math. It came super easy. So by the time university came and I had to take calculus and all that. It was a hard lesson to and my first like real big failure. I did fail out of my university classes, which to me was a real hard shot in the gut, but it allowed me to take the time to really evaluate what I wanted to do. I didn't overly enjoy the classes. I didn't like sitting in big lecture theaters and just having information thrown at me. I very much like to be moving and working with my hands, and so it took some time to really think about what I wanted to do.
Speaker 2:And then I flipped open. It used to be the science catalog. It was, I'm sure you're familiar the paper copy. Yeah, oh yeah. So I started flipping through and I just started thinking you know, what have I done that I think I might enjoy as a career? What kind of skills do I have? And basically narrowed my auctions down.
Speaker 2:I was, I was down to either nursing, carpentry and welding, and from there I decided you know what I? I did welding in high school and at the time I hated it. Honestly. I I didn't get along with the teacher. It was dirty, we had very old equipment. I mean, our practice coupons were cultivator shovels, so we literally never welded more than like two inches at a time. So I didn't have a good picture of what welding was, but I did really well at it. I learned the theory very well and my two-inch weld was always looking good. So, but I really wanted to get into interior decorating and decor and metal art and so I thought, well, if I want to do that, I better learn how to join some metals. So I applied for the welding program and I guess the rest is history. That was the start.
Speaker 2:Yeah you, thank you, uh, yeah, for for a number of years definitely, my earlier years was very much whatever the boys did I wanted to be doing. And I mean, don't get me wrong, I certainly had my time where I was really into doing hair and nails and makeup. Um, those started to come like as I got into my teenage years. The boys kind of separated away and once the boys started, you know, finding interest in the girls and starting to date the girls, that's really when I found that separation. It was like, well, I don't want to hear what these guys are saying about my friends, or, you know, I don't. I don't want to be the middle person either. Right, lot of my girlfriends. Oh well, you know the guys, and so I found I was that middle person. So for me it was okay. You know what, I'm just gonna separate and I'll hang out with the girls now.
Speaker 2:Um, you know what I, my best friend growing up, he, he was my go-to for that, absolutely yeah, uh. So, actually, my godfather, my one uncle, um, I knew he did a lot. I wasn't certain of his role per se, but I knew he did a lot with finances and I don't want to say I was sheltered growing up, but at the same time I was kind of sheltered Growing up in that small town. We didn't have as much exposure to different careers, right, exactly, it was very stereotypical. The women would become teachers or nurses or secretaries, and you know, you know how it is right, yeah, well, exactly right. So, oh, absolutely, yeah, yeah, uh, well, honestly, my, I never told my parents the reason why I stopped going to university.
Speaker 2:I never told them then that like that, no, no, I've told them since. I've told them since, um, but at the time I, right, don't listen, mom and dad, no, um, I did get a letter from the university asking me to take a year off. And so I mean, I kind of broke it to my mom how I know how, with a bit of humor, I told her you know, I've got good news and bad news. And the bad news is I'm pregnant, mom, and she's what? And I said, oh no, that's the good news, that's just a joke. The bad news is I'm not going back to university because I hate it, which which was the truth. I mean, I, I, it wasn't my thing, um, I was, you know, 19 years.
Speaker 2:At the time, I spent more time wanting to socialize and meet people, um, than I did with my studies, and so, rather than continue to spend the money to go to, you know, take something I don't love I told my parents you know what, I'm gonna work for a few years and I'm going to think about what I want to do. And so it was about two years that I was just working random jobs. I think I was, you know, two or three part-time jobs at a time. And then, yeah, they were both really shocked when I said I was going to go into welding. Dad had questions.
Speaker 2:I mean, at the time it was I had very short hair and I was playing on women's softball teams and he made assumptions about my sexuality and kind of joked about it and but at the end, like I don't know if he was maybe leery when I first got into it, but by the time I finished my certificate program in welding, my class had voted me as kind of the leader of the group. And so just even telling him about that, that you know what, like I'm really loving this, I can't wait. I'm doing well, my class appreciates me, like, like I I'm still kind of taking on these leader roles and my parents are both teachers, by the way, so they love somebody who steps up. But it was it was then, and as I started to progress in my career, that dad really started to see that, oh, I actually was good at it. Um, so Thanks for watching.
Speaker 4:Wait.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, I did. Yeah, and actually I finished our program a little early. Um, I did manage to get my assignments done ahead of a number of classmates and I was so excited I thought, well, I did amazing at school and I was so excited to start working. And then it took me. So I finished school. I believe it was end of April, beginning of May, kind of thing. I didn't start working until about September or October and that was really frustrating.
Speaker 2:Um, looking back, it was a slower time in industry. Um, but I was really convinced it was because I was a woman. Um, there was, yeah, there was a lot of my classmates that the male counterparts that they got jobs right away. Um, and I do remember there was one shop in particular that I went and applied and, of course, walked in with my resume and kind of got a bit of a sneer from the admin and you know, she gave me that we're not looking to hire and I said, well, I saw your ad online. You are looking for welders, that's what I'm here applying as. And at that moment, one of the supervisors came out and he looked at me and said we don't hire women. And I like eyes wide, I mean, I don't I don't hide my emotions very well, so he certainly it is. And, like to this day still, I was so proud of myself. I looked at him and I said you know what, I don't even want to work here. And I turned and walked away. And of course I got to my car and I was very emotional but I thought, why would I want to work at a place that is that closed minded, you know, and absolutely? And so I kind of did my own little experiment. I, when I started applying at places, half the places I would apply as Allison, places, half the places I would apply as Alison, and the other half I started applying as Al. And imagine that I got more phone calls back to the applicants where I applied as Al and there were still a few that, oh, when they found out that I was a woman, oh yeah, well, we'll see if we can get you in for an interview or whatever. Whatever the excuse was, but I did end up.
Speaker 2:I found a amazing job. My first job was great. We were, I was night shift, which wasn't quite that's exactly, and but it was such a small crew like there were five of us on the crew. Um, my supervisor was a female. I worked with one of the girls I had taken school with, so there was three females and two guys on our crew and, oh, it was amazing, it was so great.
Speaker 2:Um it, it was hard because I learned that I was not as strong as welder as what I thought I was. Um right, yeah, but again that. Um right, yeah, but again that you know, you hear from your co-workers, oh, who did this? Be well, but then look down and know that I was the one who did it. Um, so that was hard too, but then it, it really opened the door for me because I was one of the less skilled workers on our welders, on our crew. They knew that. Okay, well, we need more fitters on our welders, on our crew. They knew that. Okay, well, we need more fitters. So that's where the supervisor took me right under her wing and she trained me one-on-one on how to be a better fitter, and that's really where I found I excelled. Absolutely, yeah, absolutely. Thank you, absolutely.
Speaker 4:Mm-hmm.
Speaker 2:Absolutely.
Speaker 2:Yep, yep, yep so actually I I did request to go back and retake my second level um, and the reason for that? Because it was about it was about two years after I was in school that I got to go back my first company. They were not eager to indenture me and so I was only there about eight months. So I started at the second shop that I worked at and then, after I had spent a bit of time there, I asked them if I would be able to go back to school, and I did want to go back because so much of my work experience was in fabrication. I did want to finish with my welding, because that's what I started with and I didn't want to just leave that.
Speaker 2:So, yeah, I requested to retake my second year to give me that additional practice, and for me I'm so glad I did and that I was able to. So I did. I completed my welding. Actually, I got my red seal in that in 2014. Actually, I got my red seal in that in 2014 and it was like six months later I was signed up as a metal fabricator and got to take my first year of school. So it was like back-to-back trades.
Speaker 2:I don't believe that for a minute yeah well, certainly for the welding um, especially the first two years, learning the processes um I did for me was very challenging because industry all we did was I mean, my first shop it was gmaw and my second shop was all metal core, flux core, so it was all the wire fed processes were the only practical experience I had.
Speaker 2:So learning the theory behind every, every process, um, I did find really challenging in the welding. I didn't find as many challenges in the metal fab, but I had already been in industry for a number of years, so so much of the fabrication, um, the drawings, like that was what I did day to day and the exactly the company I was working for. They were amazing at moving me around. So I had experience with the structural, the plate work, the piping, even the pressure vessels. So I was very rounded in my knowledge just from the company I worked at and I think that was really my saving grace because I mean, for somebody who would be green, I would say probably the metal fab I would say as one of the harder courses, just because there's that much more that you need to learn. Yeah.
Speaker 4:Yeah, right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah right, yeah, yeah, and I mean, when I work with prospective students, and especially females, which is, as you know, my area of uh, expertise or whatever, um, I I like to kind of give them the idea that, okay, are you more of a problem solver and you like to, um, like, think things through and come up with solutions? And again, like that, math, right, if that's kind of more your skill level or your interest, metal fab might be a better suit for you, whereas the welding is more the application. Physically, can you produce a nice weld? Right, yeah, you have to know somewhat of what goes into a weld, but a lot of times when you're in industry, especially welding to a procedure, have to know somewhat of what goes into a weld. But a lot of times when you're in industry, especially welding to a procedure, like, you can go to a book that tells you exactly everything you need to do, how to set your machine and it's a matter of, okay, can you work with this exactly, right? So kind of a different are you the doer or the thinker is, and I mean, I know that's a very simplified way to explain it, right, but, yes, and I mean I know that's a very simplified way to explain it, right, but yes, exactly, absolutely. You know I am such a believer of to keep your options open. Right, I was. I was very happy with what with the shop that I was working at, and throughout my entire schooling I stayed at the same shop, like I was there. It was almost a full decade I was at that shop. But I wanted to have in my back pocket a more desirable resume, right, if people could see okay, well, I've completed a red seal in welding and then I've completed a red seal in fabrication, it would allow me. You know, it could open the door to allow more travel or getting out of province. Absolutely, with the same credentials, right? The other thing, too, like.
Speaker 2:So, right after I got my welding, I got married that year and then the plan was to get married and have a kid. So I took my first year fab like two weeks after I got back from my honeymoon, I think it was and then found out while I was in school that I was also expecting. So then it was okay, well, you know, try to balance school May as well. Yeah, but I wanted that, knowing that. Okay, then I was going to become a mom. You know, I wanted to show that, okay, I've taken schooling, this is what I've accomplished. But now, having the second trade, I was hoping that, okay, this would allow me more flexibility to have the time at home to be a mother but also to make a great wage, absolutely, yeah. Well, you know, dad is very much like okay, so if I get all these metal projects, you can just help me out with them, so it's cheap labor for him. Honestly, I never saw that for myself.
Speaker 2:No, I I had always wanted to be a teacher, though, and that was since I was a kid and seeing my parents as teachers, um, and like, growing up, you know, I taught piano and helped out, and so I had that little bit of teaching experience and I actually, when I was in my third year welding, my instructor at the time was the one female instructor we had on staff and she started talking to me about this WIT program. That was Tammy. Yeah, oh, I absolutely love Tammy. She is one of the reasons, honestly, why I got to where I'm at. I love Tabby, she, she is one of the reasons, honestly, why I got to where I'm at is she started telling me about this WIT program that, even as a student, I mean, yeah, I've got emails from WIT, but I never paid attention to them. But then she started talking to me and she's like well, why don't you come teach for us? And at the time I was like I'm not even a journeyman, like I can't be a teacher, and's like well, no, you'd just be. You know, you'd be teaching women that are interested in getting into traits, like she's like you don't have to share all your theory, you just have to show them how to weld. So I was like okay, well, I'm not even a good welder. And she's like well, you're better than them. She is. Yeah, why am I blanking on his name? Right now, too, I can picture his face in my mind. Um, I'm nice.
Speaker 2:Um, my quick speech for the WIT program is basically we work in two ways. We work to help raise awareness and to help with recruitment, to get women into the male-dominated skill trades and technology programs. So we do. We offer exploration courses where we invite women onto campus, and actually we're starting to do outreach too, which is exciting. But basically we bring them in, we get a journeyed woman who's a part of that trade, whether it be welding, carpentry, whatever and give them a day of hands on on the tools, talk to them about the trade you know what's great, what can be challenging and just create a safe space for them to try things out, where they don't feel uncomfortable asking questions. Right, we like to keep our groups small, like a small group of 12 kind of thing, where they have that opportunity almost a one-on-one to ask any questions that are on their mind.
Speaker 2:The other part of what we do is we're a support service for our female students on campus. So if students are, we remind them you know when the different award cycles are open and hey, remember to apply for all these scholarships. We do networking lunch and learns with them, so we'll feed them pizza and bring in an industry speaker and just give them the opportunity to network with different women. We have an open door policy so if there's a challenge or a struggle that they're going through, they can feel safe to come into our office and chat about it. And we've been there, right, like. We understand that sometimes you might be the only female in your group of 12. Or, if you're lucky, you might have another female classmate. But sometimes it is uncomfortable to go to your male instructor or male program head to talk about some of these issues, right.
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Speaker 2:You, I think, really like we work to give them a lot of resources, um, and really just education, the awareness, right? Um, we do. Obviously, we always like to talk about why the trades are amazing, but we also like to share with these women what can happen, right, and it's not that we're, you know, ranting and raving about all these awful experiences we may have had. It's the truth, right, and we just want whoever is going into the trades to be aware of these truths that unfortunately, they still do exist. And don't get me wrong, industry's on the right track and you know there are so many initiatives to diversify and everything. But it is not a perfect world, and we know that, right, and it's not always the perfect environment for every personality either.
Speaker 4:Hmm, thank you.
Speaker 2:One of the biggest barriers we hear time and again is child care, right? Um, and that goes for any industry you're in, um, I know from my experience in welding, child care was a challenge, um, when I became a single mom, um, when I was in industry, it wasn't always easy to get my kid to daycare. For me to start work at six, right, the nice thing for women is because everyone's pushing to get more women involved, we have a lot more options about places we can work, and that was honestly part of what led me to the role that I'm in now is having that flexibility to better balance my career with my family life. But, yeah, finding childcare is a big barrier. But also finances, right, if you have no exposure, if you have no idea what a trade really entails other than you know hey, I know welders join metals. Well, you know, you might think you're interested in something, but when you actually get to doing it, it's. It's not the right fit for you, right, and so that's where our programming we have the exploratories to give them that overview, because it is really difficult to make a big financial commitment to commit to going to school for a year.
Speaker 2:Right, there's. I mean, obviously your bills will continue. You're likely not working when you're focused on school, and then if you've got a family or dependents that you're caring for, I mean it just adds and adds and adds, right. So, absolutely, the financial barrier is one of the hardest ones, and so that's what the WIT program, the WIT Powered by Toronto program, is working to help reduce. So, if there's you know, funded programs that come up, we have a huge list of contacts that are always interested in more information. So let's get the word out, let's share these opportunities with them. Um, we're starting to have, you know, sponsored seats, or we have external partners that we work with to reduce this cost for these women to get in and to start trying out and getting a better idea of the opportunities that are out there.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah well, yeah, you totally are. Um, I know a lot of those supports like and I'm just thinking in regards to newcomers. So we have started reaching out to some of our larger newcomer organizations in the various cities here in the province and so we know that, yes, like the language barrier, the cultural differences, right, those are, those are huge. The nice I mean Saskola is amazing. There are supports throughout campus, right. So if you need support with language or with your studies, like we've got tutors, we've got supports for that and like WIT doesn't work directly one-on-one with those students, that's more our job to just again bring that information, connect them right. Hey, come to our office, let us know how we can help and we're going to find you the answers that you're looking for, right, because that's one of the most intimidating parts is, you know where you're struggling but you don't know where to start to find the information right or who to reach out to. Well, we've got those resources to help put you in the right paths to get you settled. Yep, well, I think it's great, especially getting out to industry right, because that's where I mean in school, we can support you, we can make accommodations, we have that capacity. Not every industry is willing or able to make those modifications right, and so, like, with our WIP program, we've got a very extensive list of employers that have gotten great reviews from our female students, right. We also have lists where we've had students that have really struggled with employers, and so when we're working with these students that may have a different ability, we want to make sure that we're working with industry and also with the program to make sure that we're helping set this student up for success, right, we want to make sure that they we are getting them sent out to an employer that has these accommodations in place or is willing to make changes, right, we don't want to just okay, well, you're done school here, you go head out to industry, right, and so we do. We do work closely with the office to advance women apprentices, um, and we're starting to do more work. They did, I'm so excited, yes, yeah. So we do work really close with vanessa, um, because basically she's kind of that, she's that industry support, we're that school support, right. So we like the students to be aware We've also started working, too, with Women Building Futures, because they have a lot of those industry supports as well and they know a lot of the employers, right. So that's where those resources and just keeping the students informed and telling them how it is right, being real with them, being truthful with them so that they know what they're fully getting into, thank you.
Speaker 2:Throughout the year, yet so we I'm trying to get my ladies all on board we've had huge shifts within wit too. So we're. I mean, two years ago I stepped into the rule list program head and my entire team was new. That was the year tommy retired um, so now so I went from having four halftime coordinators to right now, I have two full-time and four halftime coordinators, so now there's six women that are working on my team. So we are thankfully able to expand. But so each of the different cities where we do have a campus works within their city to find resources that are available to stay up to date.
Speaker 2:But each month we do like to have a networking, a pizza lunch for our students, and so during the year we'll, you know, ask the students who do you want to hear from? You know, is there a specific industry? Are you looking to hear about supports? We'll bring in our internal student services that help with. I know we call it like soft skill or essential skill training, um, resume writing, like those things that, as a student, get into the workforce. You're going to have to know these things, right so, right, right, these are additional supports that I mean as a certificate student. You hear about these on your first day or second day of school, but it's such an information overload, right, they go through. Okay, these are your. You know 25 supports that are available to you and then they're not really talked about throughout the year. So you know, day one when you're hearing all this information, you don't remember most of it. So, throughout the year, maybe three or four months later, we'll bring in one of those supports and help them out. Or we regularly bring in Vanessa from the office to advance women, especially near the end of the year when students are almost getting out. Exactly, hey, reach out to Vanessa, she's going to be supporting you in industry, right? So, and those, those lunch and learns we do.
Speaker 2:We invite all of the females that are in. Well, now our faculty. We transition schools to faculty now. So any female student that's in, you know, construction, transportation, mining, manufacturing, engineering come on in, you're more than welcome. We've even had a number of male students start to attend our pizza lunches and I know the first pizza lunch I went to, there was a gentleman there and he looked at me and he said I'm a guy. And I said, well, you know, like you know, it's 2023, I make no assumptions and I just, hey, welcome to our pizza lunch. And then he said, well, is it okay if I stay here? I know it's for women and I was like well, I have one question for you, do you support women in trades? And he absolutely got my sisters Actually his sister's in welding. That's why I like him so much. But he's Awesome, awesome, right, who doesn't?
Speaker 2:Um, so so far, these last two years, we have, with having more staff available, we have been able to offer more exploratory courses. Um, so, I know the year I stepped in, I think we had, you know, one program in the fall, one in the spring that was running in saskatoon and Regina, and now we have each semester so kind of fall and winter semesters. We have all four campuses offering at least one program. That's going on, with Lorraine being our Indigenous coordinator. She is getting out to the smaller communities that are a bit more remote, so she's going out there to do presentations and take a bunch of swag and share what wit offers with these students, and I mean majority of communities she goes into. They've never even heard of us and it's it's crazy to me because I know the wit program has been around for over 30 years and we still have there's so many people in the province that have no idea we exist and no idea that we're there to support our students. So my vision is really just making us a known name, right, like so that everyone knows who we are.
Speaker 2:We have a Young Women's Conference that is actually tomorrow down in Regina, but we do host that regularly, and now this year we're doing a Jill of All Trades event.
Speaker 2:Okay, for ours here in Saskatchewan. So, like perfect, um, it is the first time that they're coming out to Saskatchewan, um, so, like perfect, okay, I'm. I am writing it down right now. Okay, perfect, I'll add you to our, our email distribution list, um, but yeah, so my, my goal is that every year we're going to have be able to offer Jill of all trades, and so, yeah, we are starting to do more conferences, just basically provide more information to these younger ladies. So our young women's conference being for grade eight girls, and then that Jill of all trades for grade nine to 12 young ladies. So while they're still in elementary, getting into high school, or while they're still in high school, they still have the opportunity to try out and explore these different career options available to them, so that when they graduate, they're not overwhelmed with well now, what do I do? Right? They've started building those ideas. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 4:Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah, I don't know. I don't know that's, that's that, right. Well, and that's really part of what I'm still learning, right, um, because I am so new to the role it's, I'm at the point where I'm, for myself, getting out there and making connections, um, and reaching out to people and starting that communication, right, I mean, we have our files of people we've reached out to. The trouble is, well, I guess one of the challenges, certainly when working with women exclusively, is all of the documentation, all of the data we have can get altered, right, like you think about, when we used to keep track of people for contact information, it was a first name, last name basis.
Speaker 2:Well, as a woman, especially for myself, I know that when I got married, I changed my last name, so I'm no longer Alison Coral, right, where, if the only way to get a hold of me you have is through Alison Coral, well, now you can't contact me anymore, right? Or for myself, again, like when I had my son, well, I took a major step back from my involvement and my volunteer for that first year, year and a half, two years, whatever it was. Well then, I'm off the radar, right, they've already found somebody to replace me absolutely, and these I mean these are still the barriers that a lot of women face, right, and it's it's still a lot of our society too, like it's, I don't know. I mean, for a lot of the women that I work with, they still feel expected that as the mom, they're the caregivers or you know, they kind of fall into that role.
Speaker 2:And.
Speaker 2:I know that's certainly Right, well, and that's certainly not the case for everyone, right, but a very high number of people that I talk to, that that is the case and that's their reality, right. So of people that I talk to, that that is the case and that's their reality, right, um, so we, we don't um a lot of it is, I mean, because we keep that open lines of communication, yeah, like I. For example, I have one lady and right now she's in her second year welding. She was in my I taught an applied certificate and she was in my course. So she's back and first thing she came back to campus and she had to stop up and say hi and kind of catch up with me.
Speaker 2:So it's, it's that relationship we built um that now she feels, you know, we keep in contact and she likes to keep me in the loop, and that's. That's not the case for everyone, right, like some people, when they're, when they're done school, they're out of here and they don't really care um, but it's certainly when there are either those really good experiences or the very negative ones, those are the ones that seem to be shared. We don't have a lot of the neutral like oh yeah, it was OK, right, it's either this was great and this is why, or I had an awful time because of this Right.
Speaker 4:Right. Thank you For sure, I hate Right Right yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no kidding.
Speaker 4:Okay, yeah, yeah Right, absolutely, absolutely.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, absolutely, and there there is such a huge range of confidence levels and, like I mean, I just I was putting together a powerpoint so I very briefly touched on the tip of the iceberg on those confidence levels. But I know Cornell and like a bunch of universities in the states, have extensive studies about the different levels of confidence in women versus men, as young as in for every decade basically 20s, 30s, 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s and their study that they took women's confidence levels didn't start exceeding men until most women were in their 50s or 60s. So you think of these young women getting into the trades that are in their 20s or 30s or heaven forbid if they're still in their teens how low their confidence level is in comparison to their male counterparts and so much of it. That's why we, as women, put up with so much of this.
Speaker 2:We don't have the confidence to be bold and to speak up right, and so that's where our networking events and when we do our like our summer camps for young girls, we're constantly reminding them like be confident, you might not be the best in this trade, but you are the best you and you have these skills, and if you're not appreciated, then you need to choose a place that does appreciate you Right, and we really reiterate that like know your worth and find the best fit for you. It. It is hard to leave a company that's treating you awful right, but it's harder to stay there and be treated like trash. Then absolutely right, and so, yeah, definitely the confidence is, it's a big part.
Speaker 4:Yep, yeah, yeah, yeah, yep, mm-hmm, yep, yeah, yeah uh, so actually on our website we do have.
Speaker 2:We have a little mentorship section on there where women can, um, sign up so if they're looking to become a mentor or if they're looking to become a mentor or if they're looking to find a mentor, so that mentor, mentee relationship, they can sign up. So we do have extensive documents about you know, people we've matched together, or if a student even like if they email or whatever from a program that I'm not familiar with and hey, I have some questions about this, we do kind of have our list of go-to ladies that will tap on the shoulder and hey, this you know so-and-so has questions about this. I know you have a similar experience. Would you mind having a conversation? And I mean I haven't reached out to anyone that's been like, no thanks, take me off your list. Right, like these women are, they're wanting to volunteer, right, don't contact me. No-transcript. The majority of our programming will be wrapping up at the end of April for this academic year. So definitely I would say, if you've got younger kids, that you're looking to get into some summer camps. We have our Girls Exploring Trades and Technology, our GET camps that we're hoping to host on each campus. So we'll be posting some ads for that right away and then getting back into the fall programming. So, again, we'll be doing at least one program, if not more, on each of our four campuses, and those are for ladies 15 plus, so there is no maximum age. We've had women in their 50s and 60s come take our programming. It's super beneficial if you're looking for a change of career, but also if you just want to add some extra skills to your toolkit.
Speaker 2:So, urano Canada they are a uranium mining company. Um, their head office in france, but they're uh, they do have a headquarters here in saskatoon. Um, they very generously gifted our program a million dollars over the next decade. So, um, they are making a financial contribution to us to help us to get more women into the trades, to raise the awareness and to reduce the barriers that are involved with getting into the trades. So, um, through their gift, through their giving, um, last year we certainly spent a lot of time on, or a lot of money on, advertising to really get the name out there and rebranding. We do want people to know that majority of what we do now is thanks to Orano and the gift that they've given us, but now it's allowing us to expand our staff, which will expand our programming, and to offer at a more reasonable price to the students looking to participate. But I would, I would send them out, absolutely. I would send them up in a heartbeat. Um, a huge amount of the work that we are doing, um, because of their funding, is getting out into the communities, so reaching out to a lot smaller Indigenous and First Nation communities, but also expanding into the North, because I mean, historically, the WIT programs have operated on Prince Albert, moose, jaw, saskatoon and Regina campus and on campus alone. So now we've got our little mini training trailer that we're able to take out into communities. So, if you know, these communities, get a group of women together rather than them having to drive four or five hours to come to our campus to take programming. Hey, you know what? We're going to come to you. We're going to come to you and your community, where you're right at home, give you a bit of additional knowledge. Obviously, yes, we're trying to get some of these students and especially young ladies up north working in the mines, right, but definitely, yeah, just reaching out and just spreading the wit word, just sharing the information that we're around. And how can we support our female students.
Speaker 2:I do think about heading back to industry every once in a while. Um, I do also have my level one weld inspection which is coming up for renewal this year. So I've been looking at CWB courses that I can take to keep that relevant um. But with my role here, having the summers off, I have often thought about, well, maybe I could head out into industry and maybe do some weld inspection um over the summertime, right, um, yeah, yeah. So it's for me just a matter of finding that balance, um, between the child care and being out in industry.
Speaker 2:Um, I do like to tinker. That's still my thing. I have no drive to get back to industry on the tools, um, I don't think my poor body could handle it these days, to be honest. I've been in the office for too long. But I do like to tinker and do a lot of decorative um and like decor work and some of it's personal, some of it is, you know, if friends are getting married or whatever kind of more of a gift um. But yeah, I do see myself hopefully continuing in this program head role for a while and, who knows, maybe one day I'll be moving up to academic chair or dean or whatever. I mean the keep my option. I got to keep my options open, right, absolutely well, and that's the other thing too, like a lot of the senior management is looking closer at that retirement, right, um, and I know I've still got a number of years left on them, so why not? Great, um.
Speaker 2:So if they want to check out, uh, we are on facebook, um, sask polytech, I believe it's saskatchewan polytechnic, women in trades and technology, or, if you, usually, if you just shorten it to wit, w-i-t-t. Um. And then we do also have our Women in Trades homepage, which is at saskpolytechca slash W-I-T-T. Our homepage is going to tell you about all of our courses and events that are coming up, and it also supplies people with lists of external resources. You can join our mailing list, our mentorship, and then it has all of our contact information there as well to reach out to any campus coordinator. Yeah, thank you so much, max. Women building futures yeah yeah, yeah, hmm, we hope you enjoy the show.
Speaker 3:Cwb Association Welding Podcast with Max Serrano. If you enjoyed what you heard today, rate our podcast and visit us at cwbassociationorg to learn more. Feel free to contact us if you have any questions or suggestions on what you'd like to learn about in the future. Produced by the CWB Group and presented by Max Serrano, this podcast serves to educate and connect the welding community. Please subscribe and thank you for listening.