With only five percent of people working in the trades sector being women, First Peoples Developent Inc. is hoping to bump that number up significantly.
They have opened a LauncHer Into Trades Program, which aims to promote the retention of all women in Red Seal Trades in Manitoba, while also assisting women in achieving employment in a Red Seal trade career.
Barb Moran is the program manager, and says there are some qualifications that have to be met by potential participants in the program.
"The individual must be working. so they have to have an employer for us to assist them with say PPE, boots, safety glasses, or anything like that."
Barb recognizes that there are a lot of challenges in the trades, especially for women. She also says that since five percent of the current trades labor force in Canada is made up of women, this leads to a largely untapped demographic for the trades.
"you know, we want to educate the females to increase women in the field first of all, and also recognize the employer as champions hiring the women as their taking on apprentices."
A total of 30 trades are eligible for assistance with the LauncHer program.
To get more information or to start the application process, you visit fpdinc.ca
