The Canadian Apprenticeship Forum (CAF-FCA) announced that a task force will oversee the development of a National Strategy for Women in Trades.

“Our country is going to need thousands of new trades professionals in the next five years, and the creation of a national strategy to help attract more women to the trades will be critical to meeting labour market and economic needs,” said Shelley Gray, CEO of B.C’s Industry Training Authority and task force participant in the CAF-FCA press release.

The task force is comprised of apprentices, tradeswomen, representatives from women’s organizations, labour groups, employers, educators and jurisdictional apprenticeship authorities. Its objective will be to inform specific strategy content and establish a national target to increase participation and retention of females in skilled trades careers.

“We already know what the barriers are. Insights from this task force, along with twenty years of CAF-FCA national research in the area will provide a clear direction on how to create sustainable change,” added France Daviault, executive director of CAF-FCA.

“The entire skilled trades community needs to work together and set targets for increasing female participation – what gets measured gets done”, she continued.

The task force’s first meeting is on Sept. 9, 2019 and the national strategy will be presented at the National Apprenticeship Conference in Calgary on May 24-26, 2020.