To help inform young women in high school about careers in the skilled trades and technologies, Centennial hosted an eye-opening experience at the Jill of All Trades event on October 24. The full-day event took place at Ashtonbee Campus, welcoming 134 students from school boards across the GTA, including Toronto, Durham and Dufferin-Peel. Participants rotated through workshops that gave them a chance to roll up their sleeves and try their hand at different skilled trades.
"Jill of All Trades is an important opportunity to inspire young women about the possibility of trades as a career path they can take," said Michelle Solomon, Centennial’s Outreach Coordinator, Women in Non-Traditional Careers. "Trying out the skilled trades excites and empowers students to explore the options that are available in industries like construction and transportation."
The School of Transportation’s auto body workshop organized activities such as using a plasma cutter to carve designs into pieces of sheet metal, and the heavy-duty equipment workshop had participants installing four-foot-tall tires on a Caterpillar Loader. Students also got to see demos and talk to representatives from numerous skilled-trades employers, including Enbridge, Wajax, EllisDon, Bombardier, Toromont Caterpillar, Canadian Tire and many more.
"Through first-hand experience, students learn just how rewarding the skilled trades can be," said Alan McClelland, Dean of the School of Transportation. "Centennial College operates one of the largest transportation technology schools in Canada, so it's a natural site for a skilled-trades orientation like Jill of All Trades."
Two noteworthy keynote speakers included Mandy Rennehan, CEO and founder of Freshco.ca – the retail maintenance and reconstruction company (not the grocery store) – and host, contractor and designer on HGTV’s Trading Up, as well as Centennial graduate Emily Chung, owner and operator of AutoNiche, an automotive service centre in Markham.
The event drew several Ontario government representatives, whose goal it is to see more young women and men enter the trades to offset the loss of some 700,000 skilled-trades workers who are retiring. On hand were Jill Dunlop, Minister of Colleges and Universities; Charmaine Williams, Associate Minister of Women’s Social and Economic Opportunity; Stephen Lecce, Minister of Education; Vijay Thanigasalam, MPP for Scarborough-Rouge Park, and David Smith, MPP Scarborough Centre and Parliamentary Assistant to the Minister of Labour, Immigration, Training and Skills Development.
The action-packed day made for a good media story, which saw CBC, OMNI-TV and the Scarborough Mirror on site to speak to participants; CBC prepared its report for its radio network. This is Centennial's second year hosting Jill of All Trades, which was founded by Conestoga College in Kitchener and has been running since 2014.