Canada invests more $ to get more women into construction

Over $200K in funding to get women working announced: Hamilton's YWCA receives funding for project to get more women in construction, manufacturing

By Sola DaSilva, CBC News
Posted: Jan 24, 2014 2:30 PM ET

Last Updated: Jan 24, 2014 2:37 PM ET

The Hamilton YWCA says women are underrepresented in traditionally male-dominated careers like construction and manufacturing — but now it has a hefty government cheque to try and change that.

On Friday, parliamentary secretary for Status of Women Canada Susan Truppe announced the YWCA will receive just over $240,000 for a three-year project that will advance recruitment and retention of women in those industries.

This type of project is even more significant because of the imminent skill shortages facing Canada, says Truppe.

Susan Truppe, parliamentary secretary for Status of Women Canada,
announces funding support for Hamilton YWCA project
to advance the recruitment and retention of women in construction
and manufacturing industries. (Sola DaSilva)

“There is going to be a skill shortage and we think that women have a great opportunity to able to fill those roles and they are certainly talented and skilled enough,” Truppe said. “This is important because of Hamilton being a bit of an industrial city … so Hamilton is an ideal place to do this project. These jobs are out there and are very well-paying and that’s why we want to see more women — so there are better opportunities for women to prosper.”

The funding will go towards outreach, planning and strategies to help women in Hamilton join the trades, says Denise Doyle, the chief executive officer of Hamilton YWCA.

“We already know that we have to look to women, Aboriginals and new immigrants when we think about where our workers are going to come from in the next ten to 15 years. Employers today are investing in strategies in order to be more effective in those recruiting processes,” Doyle said. “We hope that our work over the next three years is going to not only engage with women who want to enter those trades but also engage with the employers and help them bring women into their organizations.”

According to a report released by the Conference Board of Canada in Oct. 2013, many Hamilton employers report skill shortages. A survey of 1,538 Ontario employers (about 4 per cent of which were from Hamilton) showed the highest shortages were in the engineering and infrastructure fields, followed by the energy and utilities industries and the manufacturing and automotive industries.

Recruiting women to these occupations, many of which are high paying, will provide an opportunity for women to leave low paying or minimum wage jobs for unionized employment.

“The one thing that I can assure you of is that this program is going to be run by strong women leaders and the men involved will encourage the young women who are coming up to negotiate more than a living wage and an equal wage,” Doyle said.

To view the full article, visit http://www.cbc.ca/.

(Funding opportunity) Women in Clean Energy Program for United States

The U.S. Department of Energy has announced a three-part plan to help implement the Clean Energy Education and Empowerment initiative or “C3E” – a Ministerial program aimed at attracting more women to clean energy careers and supporting their advancement into leadership positions.   

This new program, pursued in partnership with the MIT Energy Initiative, is designed to translate the goals of C3E into concrete, meaningful action in the United States.  

“The Department of Energy is committed to advancing American leadership in the global clean energy economy and capturing the new markets and jobs of the 21^st century. We will be more successful in these endeavors if we harness the talents of all of our citizens,” saysEnergy Secretary Steven Chu. “Through the U.S. C3E initiative announced today, we are excited to join with MIT to ensure we are leveraging the skills and experiences of women nationwide to help solve important national and international energy challenges.”

MIT President Susan Hockfield, highlighting the importance of this partnership says “Inventing a sustainable energy future represents the defining challenge of our time.  To make progress against a problem of such scale, complexity and global scope demands the fullest range and depth of talent, ideas and commitment; by definition, then, women must play essential roles in the drive toward transformative energy innovations. MIT is pleased to join with DOE to help develop and implement the C3E Initiative, and to sponsor both the Women in Clean Energy Symposium and the awards program this fall.”

The new components of the U.S. C3E action plan were announced  this week at the Clean Energy Ministerial, a global forum of the energy ministers and leaders of 23 governments, joining together to promote policies and programs to advance clean energy technology, share best practices and lessons learned, and encourage the transition to a global clean energy economy.  Sweden’s Minister of Information Technology & Energy, Anna‐Karin Hatt, and South Africa’s Director General of Energy, Nelisiwe Magubane, delivered keynote addresses at the C3E event, followed by a moderated panel discussion on the policies and programs that have been effective in increasing women’s participation in the clean energy workforce. 

These new activities help deliver on the U.S. commitment to C3E, launched by nine governments at the first Clean Energy Ministerial in July 2010. Australia, Denmark, Mexico, Norway, South Africa, Sweden, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, and the United States each committed to undertake meaningful activities to advance women in clean energy and close the gender gap in their own national contexts and link their efforts wherever possible.  Each country is developing its own implementation plan, tailored to its unique workforce and industry needs and talents. 

Retrieved from: http://www.buildings.com/News/IndustryNews/tabid/3290/ArticleID/13970/Default.aspx

WANTO Grant Application: Availability of Funds and Solicitation for Grant Applications for Women in Apprenticeship and Nontraditional Occupations (WANTO)

Retrieved from: http://www.doleta.gov/grants/pdf/wanto_sga_dfa_py_11_10.pdf


Submit your grant application today!

Funding Opportunity Number:  SGA/DFA PY-11-10
Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance (CFDA) Number:  17.201

Key Dates: The closing date for receipt of applications under this announcement is May 21,
2012.  Applications must be received no later than 4:00 p.m. Eastern Time.

Addresses: Mailed applications must be addressed to the U.S. Department of Labor,
Employment and Training Administration, Office of Grants Management, Attention:  Latifa
Jeter, Grant Officer, Reference SGA/DFA PY 11-10, 200 Constitution Avenue, NW, Room
N4716, Washington, DC 20210.  For complete application and submission information, 
including online application instructions, please refer to section IV.

Summary:
The Women’s Bureau (WB) and the Employment and Training Administration’s (ETA) Office
of Apprenticeship (OA), U.S. Department of Labor (DOL, or the Department), announces the
availability of approximately
$1,800,000 in grant funds authorized under the WANTO Act of 1992, Public Law 102-530, 29
USC 2501 et seq.  To that end, the OA and WB plan to disburse Program Year (PY) 2011 and
2012 WANTO grant funds to six consortia made up of a community-based organization (CBO),
a Local Workforce Investment Area (LWIA) established under the Workforce Investment Act
(WIA) and a registered apprenticeship program (RAP) sponsor.  Each consortium will conduct
innovative projects to improve outreach, recruitment, hiring, training, employment, and retention
of women in apprenticeships in the nontraditional occupations, as defined in Section IX of this
solicitation.

Each CBO, LWIA and RAP consortium must consist of a minimum of  three
components:  1) a CBO (which may be a faith-based organization (FBO)) that has demonstrated
experience in providing women with job-training services; 2) a LWIA (which includes a
representative of the local government responsible for administering workforce programs under
WIA or Workforce Investment Board); and (3) a RAP sponsor (which can be an individual
employer, association of employers, or an apprenticeship committee which includes joint and
non-joint committees designated by the sponsor to administer and operate an apprenticeship
program and in whose name the apprenticeship program is registered or approved).  It is
anticipated that awards will be in the amount of up to $300,000 over the two-year grant period.
The grants will be awarded in June 2012 and funded over a two-year period

Complete information is available at http://www.doleta.gov/grants/pdf/wanto_sga_dfa_py_11_10.pdf

Women's Bureau Funding to be Drastically Reduced! Act Now!

 

ISSUE ALERT The National Association of Commissions for Women (NACW) has a long history of successful collaboration with the Women's Bureau, U.S. Department of Labor.  Indeed, the Women's Bureau Regional Administrators were instrumental in establishing commissions for women in the early 1960s.  President Obama has proposed a 37% reduction in Women's Bureau staffing, downsizing the regional offices from 10 to 6, and an overall 22% funding reduction. NACW strongly opposes these severe reductions and has sent letters to President Obama and Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis.  NACW has also provided written testimony for the upcoming hearing by the House Budget Appropriation Committee on Thursday, March 29.  This testimony is available  HERE . Time is of the essence - help protect the budget of the Women's Bureau, DoL and the voice of the ONLY federal office concerned exclusively with serving and promoting the interests of female workers. Suggestions on how to use this information: Write a letter to President Obama expressing your opposition to these cuts.                                    The President                The White House                1600 Pennsylvania Avenue                Washington, DC  20500                Send a copy of the letter to the Secretary of Labor                The Honorable Hilda Solis                Secretary of Labor                200 Constitution Ave., NW                Washington, DC 20210  Send written testimony (no more than 5 pages, one-sided, double-spaced) by March 28 to lh.approp@mail.house.gov Use information in NACW's testimony to write an op-ed for your local newspaper Send letters to your state's House of Representatives and Senators Contact your Department of Labor, Women's Bureau Regional Administrator (contact information HERE) to see how you can support the effort to reinstate funding Reach out to other women's commissions in your region (NACW is divided into the same 10 regions as the Women's Bureau; information HERE) to see how you can join efforts to bring attention to this critical issue.

friend on Facebook | forward to a friend  Our mailing address is: 201 Hunters Crossing Blvd., Suite 10-172 Bastrop, TX  78602 855.703.NACW www.nacw.org info@nacw.org