STUDENT VOICES: An electric career decision

Kate Warrender always thought she would be an artist, but a few months into art school quickly erased that dream. Now the 20-year-old Reynolds Secondary graduate finds herself at Camosun College training to be an electrician — a career she never could have imagined such a short time ago, but now just feels so right.

“Growing up, we’re sort of taught that [trades] are for men,” Warrender says between classes at Camosun’s Interurban campus where she is taking Electrical Foundation courses that will prepare her for a career as an electrician in the shipbuilding industry.

“It’s not that women don’t want to get into trades. It’s just that many women don’t know it’s an option. It’s good, hard work, with good wages and I think it’s rewarding,” Warrender says.

She hails from a long line of tradesmen, including her grandfather, who was an electrical engineer, and her uncle, who is the head of Camosun’s electrical trades.

“It really has everything that I am good at,” says Warrender. “I love working with my hands, solving problems, fixing things.”

And she shrugs off the pressure that still exists for women in what is still very much a man’s world. Standing 5-foot-5, she says she will have an easier time get- ting into small places, plus she’s quick, tough and has “a strong personality.”

“There’s nothing I like more than kicking butt ... and proving people wrong.”

Warrender already has a specific job in mind. She’s aiming to work for Seaspan, the shipbuilder with operations in Vancouver and Victoria and a major contractor with the federal government’s national shipbuilding strategy, which involves millions of dollars of work over two decades.

> Watch for more Student Voices from Camosun’s trades programs this week in the Times Colonist