Hayley Mackay spent eight years on the road as a long-haul truck driver.
At the first in-person International Women’s Day event hosted by Skills Ontario on Thursday, Mackay was excited to inspire other young women to explore similar career paths in the skilled trades.
After hauling livestock all across North America, Mackay offers tours, advice and hands-on activities as the Trades & Tech Truck Program manager at Skills Ontario.
“Today, I drive our Trades & Tech truck all across the province to different schools and events to give students hands-on experience with skilled trades in a fun and safe environment,” she said.
Students in grades 11-12 from schools in Guelph and surrounding areas visited Linamar’s Frank Hazenfratz Centre for Excellence in Manufacturing to meet with skilled trade employers and to learn about various training and employment opportunities.
Celebrating its 25th anniversary, the Skills Ontario Young Women’s Initiatives is a collection of engaging and hands-on events and programs that provide skills development and mentorship opportunities to young women.
Lindsay Chester, program manager of the Skills Ontario Young Women’s Initiatives, said International Women’s Day is a day to stand together in unity, to support all women, encourage them to follow their passions, and to excel.
“International Women’s Day, for us, started during the pandemic. We held our first virtual event in 2021. So, now this is the first year we are bringing it in-person and we are really excited about that. The hope is that it becomes an annual event,” Chester said.
“We have 18 different exhibitors here today including organizations, employers, unions and schools, so there's lots of different representation.”
Participants engaged in various workshops designed to highlight the 'day-to-day' tasks associated with a skilled trade or technology career.
“Working in the skilled trades provided such a great income for me. You feel rewarded because you actually see the results of what you are doing,” Mackay said.
“There is a demand. A lot more women are seeing women getting into skilled trades. I had a young lady from Quebec, who after seeing some of my TikToks’s, thought, if she can do it, then I can do it. She got her licence and I actually met her last summer at a truck show, so that was pretty cool.”
According to Statistics Canada, about five per cent of skilled trades workers across the country are women.
“The importance of today is to have the opportunity to meet with other women who are in the industry, hear their stories and hopefully become inspired and empowered to carry that on,” Chester said.
“Students here are in grades 11 and 12 so they are in that ‘lets get ready’ stage’. I’m sure there are some here today already interested in the skilled trades. So, hopefully today’s event will give them more resources so they know what they can do next, after high school.”
Sisters Makayla Armstrong and Karissa Armstrong, both Grade 11 students at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Secondary School in Mississauga, were excited to visit Guelph for the event.
“I’m excited to be here, to see all the different trades and how women can get involved,” Makayla Armstrong said.
Her sister Karissa said she would consider a career in the skilled trades.
“Being here, we can see all of the different careers that we as women can get into, because all of these different jobs really are for everybody,” she said.
Along with online programming for International Women’s Day, Skills Ontario invited women and those who identify as women working in the skilled trades and technologies to attend an evening International Women’s Day celebration that included a variety of exhibitors, networking opportunities and a keynote presentation.
“This is an important event because it’s all about the representation. We know that there is a very low percentage of women in the skilled trades So, events like these offer the next generation, those that are inspiring to be a skilled trade workers, the opportunity to see other women in the industry,” Chester said.
“And that’s what really matters. If they can see what they can be, then they will strive to be just that.”
