Women Onsite has announced a ‘Try a Trade Day’ event in Sunshine for women interested in undertaking a traineeship or apprenticeship in plumbing and electrical.
Participants will get the opportunity to participate in two workshops, gain hands-on experience and take home some of the projects.
Lead of the Women Onsite program Barbara Huggins said the ‘Try a Trade’ days were piloted across 2020-22 as a way to help women who have considered doing a trade but were not sure where to start.
“Our research over that time showed that the average age of women starting trades in Victoria is 28,” she said.
“… This event is for women who are considering undertaking an apprenticeship, in historically male dominated trades, and want to know more about the pathways and types of trades available to them.
“They get to make some things and talk with tradeswomen about what to expect and what the pathways are. They hear about special initiatives by the government in the Big Build and also pre-apprenticeship opportunities.”
Ms Huggins said Women Onsite works to encourage more women to enter the trades industry.
“Women make up only 2 per cent of trades in historically male dominated trades, with 75 per cent of them joining a trade due to a male family member being a tradie,” she said.
“We work directly through union members in the construction industries to ask members to pass on information to the women in their lives. We also use social media and broad scale advertising to normalise people seeing women in hi-vis and trades.”
The event will take place at Victoria University Tafe Sunshine Campus on August 12, from 10am-1.30pm.
Register: www.weareunion.org.au/try_a_trade_day_sunshine
Hannah Hammoud
