Girls explore trades and technology
Program lets them test their aptitude in male-dominated occupations
Any time Kietha Swenson would buy a furniture item that needed to be assembled, she said her daughter, Matea, always wanted to be involved, and would make sure to tell her mom not to open it up until she was there to help.
“She absolutely loves having a hand in all that,” Swenson said.
This year, knowing her daughter’s artistic and mathematical abilities, and through her work with Saskatchewan Polytechnic and her understanding of the importance of the Women in Trades and Technology program, Swenson decided to enrol her daughter in the Girls Exploring Trades and Technology (GETT) camp at the Sask Polytech campus in Saskatoon.
“Knowing what Matea enjoys doing — helping at home and with any kind of little building projects and design projects — I thought this might be a really good opportunity to introduce her to another idea of career options in the future, and also just learning some really good basic skills,” she said.
The weeklong GETT camp for 12- to 15-year-old girls is run by Sask Polytech’s Women in Trades and Technology program, and emphasizes the importance of giving girls a chance to explore trades and technology because, according to Brittany Grimsdale, Sask Polytech’s WITT coordinator for the Saskatoon campus, especially for young girls, it may not be the first thing that comes to mind as a viable career option.
“There’s no reason why any young woman can’t go into any career of her choice, if that’s what she wants,” she said.
“It gives these girls a little bit of an idea of what kind of careers there are out there, what sort of things they could get into that they might really enjoy — that they wouldn’t otherwise have an opportunity to do.”
The girls had the opportunity to try out a few different trades, from plumbing and computer coding, to building tables out of recycled pallets.
The camp also introduces the girls to a variety of women in predominantly male occupations, and this year, female firefighters came to the camp with a fire engine, and spoke about what life is like as a firefighter.
For 13-year-old Matea Swenson, one of her favourite parts was being able to rip up the pallets before making them into any type of table they wanted.
“I really like how we have the freedom to build how we want our table to be,” she said.
“And I really like how there’s all the really big, expensive tools in there that we’re allowed to use. There’s lots of different saws and stuff. It’s fun.”
After her first year participating in the camp, one of the things she said she’ll be taking away is what she learned about how to drill holes, like always pre-drilling them, so they won’t split.
It’s just one trick of the trade she can take away from the camp.