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Delivered annually through the college’s School of Trades Reports indicate that more than 700,000 skilled tradespeople
& Apprenticeship, the event is designed to help girls better are set to retire by 2028. Canada needs more than 167,000 new
understand the potential of skilled trades careers. This apprentices alone to keep pace.
year’s participants joined from 12 school boards across According to Statistics Canada, women account for roughly
southwestern Ontario and were supported by volunteers that four per cent of workers in under-represented skilled trades
included industry partners, faculty, and graduates. Students occupations.
participated in a selection of 18 hands-on workshops in the
construction, industrial and motive power sectors. As part of opening remarks at the event, Conestoga President
This year marked the first year the program was delivered at John Tibbits welcomed Blue-Collar CEO Mandy Rennehan as
keynote speaker and announced she will serve as the North
Conestoga’s new skilled trades training campus. The state-of- American ambassador for the Jill of All TradesTM program.
the-art facility opened in fall 2022 to modernize apprenticeship Multi-award-winning entrepreneur, trade industry advocate,
and skilled trades training by consolidating and expanding the philanthropist, and CEO and founder of multi-million dollar
full complement of trades programs at a single location. The company Freshco, Rennehan has been one of North America’s
campus will be instrumental in Conestoga’s efforts to attract loudest and fiercest voices about skilled trades for the last 30
broader and more diverse students to trades-based careers. years, advocating for greater respect towards the industry as a
The day-long Jill of All TradesTM event was launched by whole, and also for the inclusion of more women and diverse
Conestoga in 2014 as part of the college’s commitment to communities within it.
fostering and enhancing women’s participation, persistence, Conestoga is a provincial leader in the delivery of trades and
and academic and career success in engineering, technology apprenticeship training to serve industry needs and growing
and trades. communities.
In 2022, the program expanded delivery to six other post- Comprehensive programming includes a wide range of
secondary institutions in Ontario, Alberta and British Columbia programs that provide pathways to employment in skilled
to help address a skilled labour shortage. The program is trades careers as well as pre-apprenticeship training and in-
expected to expand to more institutions across North America school training for apprentices.
over the next three years, specifically tailored to meet
employment needs in each geographic area.
The demand to keep pace with population growth and changing
workforce demographics has led to a growing skills gap.

www.cambridgechamber.com Fall 2023 13