RESCON marks International Women’s Day with a call to join the skilled trades
Ontario’s home builders marked International Women’s Day by encouraging more women to pursue careers in the skilled trades, and by calling for employers and governments to continue promoting the industry.
“With the aging workforce and pending retirement of many Baby Boomers, there will be expanding opportunities in the coming years for women looking to work in the construction industry,” says Richard Lyall, president of the Residential Construction Council of Ontario (RESCON). “We need more women in the industry and must create opportunities for school-aged girls to learn about the possibilities and types of varied careers available in construction. There are a number of initiatives under way to recruit more women.”
RESCON has been working to encourage women to take up careers in the trades. It has sponsored the two-day, annual Young Women in Science, Technology and Trades Conference at Durham College for several years.
It also partners with George Brown College to place several female students each year with employers on residential construction sites.
Women are chronically under-represented on Ontario construction sites, accounting for about 5% of on-site workers. Meanwhile, tens of thousands of jobs in the construction sector remain unfilled, and the province’s labour force will have to grow by 100,000 workers by 2030.
“With the existing labour shortage, we must ensure the industry attracts more women to the construction trades and management,” says Amina Dibe, manager of government and stakeholder relations at RESCON. “There are some rewarding career opportunities available for women in construction. The best way to get more women into the industry is to create an environment where they can gain first-hand experience and become more confident to pursue a career in the sector.”