Repost: Opportunities are plentiful in the trades

Metal fabricator Mila Puharich on the job.

Here in British Columbia, skilled workers are needed in numerous sectors, with opportunities to be found both here at home and farther afield.

The BC Jobs Plan 6 Month Progress Report recently noted, for example, that Seaspan Marine Corporation’s $8 billion contract to build non-combat vessels for the Canadian Coast Guard and the Royal Canadian Navy at their shipyards in North Vancouver and Esquimalt will provide long-standing jobs, directly and indirectly, for roughly 4,000 British Columbians.

Mila Puharich hopes to be part of this good news. She’s just starting her career but she’s already forging uncharted territory as the first female metal fabricator in her workplace in more than 60 years.

“I’m really truly the first woman they’ve ever seen in the steel fitting trade there. They are welders, electricians and riggers, but I’ve yet to meet another woman fitter.”

She also gets to hone her craft on all kinds of marine vehicles from boats, to ships, to submarines.

For heavy duty mechanic Taylor Paulson, inspired to follow his uncle into the trade, Camosun College’s heavy-duty mechanic certificate program gave him everything he needed to launch his new career. “The program was great. After 10 months in the classroom I was happy to start the hands-on stuff, the good stuff,” says Taylor.  “I received grants for my program, which were a nice boost early on.”

Today, Paulson is working in Tumbler Ridge, in northern B.C., supporting the province’s booming mining industry. “I make sure the mines are running smoothly: I diagnose and repair support trucks and equipment, sometimes I’ll be on-site, and other times I’ll have to do repairs at the shop. I’m proud that I work here in B.C. – it’s beautiful here, the hunting is fantastic, there’s amazing hiking, a world-class snowmobile system and fresh river fishing, too.”

For Puharich, two programs were key in connecting her as a female metal fabricator with her job: WITT or Women in Trades and STEP. WITT is geared towards helping employers in B.C. get the skilled workers they need by matching them with women who have some experience, or who want to start a career, in the trades. STEP is a no-fee employment program that works to match potential workers with employers. They assist eligible people by presenting them with opportunities for training and employment.

It’s no surprise Puharich gets excited when talking about WITT. “The WITT program is awesome. Karen McNeil at Camosun is the goddess of apprentices. She directed me to funding, grants and helped connect me to the STEP program. The support system there is like a trampoline, it just makes you go higher! STEP (then) helped get me the interview with Victoria Shipyards.”

To find out about these and other skills training programs visit https://www.workbc.ca/Education-Training/Programs/Pages/Employment-Programs.aspx.

Puharich continues with on-the-job training and additional courses, learning from mentors with the know-how to build more awesome boats, ships and yes, even submarines.

View the original article at www.sookenewsmirror.com.

Repost: Pioneer tradeswoman to read at Queen Anne Books

Queen Anne-based author Hadiyah Joan Carlyle will read from her memoir Torch in the Dark: One Woman’s Journey at Queen Anne Books, 1811 Queen Anne Ave. N. on Thursday, Oct. 18 at 6:30 p.m.

Carlyle’s book tells the story of how she, as a single mother, was one of the first women since World War II to enter the trades as a union welder. Beginning in a Jewish immigrant neighborhood in New Jersey, the story moves through San Francisco’s colorful Haight-Ashbury in the 1960s to arrive at last at Fairhaven Shipyard in Bellingham. For Carlyle, welding became both a path to self-reliance and economic survival and a metaphor for healing from early childhood trauma. “As one of the first female welders in the West Coast shipyards, Carlyle paved the way for women working in the trades today,” comments Arleen Williams, author of The Thirty-Ninth Victim.

The story of Carlyle’s journey offers inspiration for anyone struggling with issues of abuse and oppression. In addition, the book provides perspective on the culture of the 1960s and 1970s. “No one has even come close to the depth and detail of the sixties that Carlyle reaches,” says Jack Remick, author of The Deification and Blood.

Activist, hiker, grandmother, Carlyle is the mother of Washington State 36th District Legislator Reuven Carlyle.  More information about Torch in the Dark is available at www.torchinthedark.com.

Read the original article at http://queenannenews.com/.