The Peterborough The Kawarthas Home Builders Association

5 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE VOLUME 10, ISSUE 11 partnering with local high schools to bring more young people into the trades. “I’m trying to promote the idea that high school kids don’t necessarily need to go to college,” she says. “They can go into the trades; try it for three or four years and at the end, if they don’t like it, there’s always college and university. But they’ve started a career where they’re making money rather than paying to go to school. And it’s not just framing a house – you can start with that, but you can move up. You can be a master carpenter; you can own a company. It’s a whole career path that has endless possibilities.” Women are a particular target for the association. “Our board just created a Women in Trades committee in the spring of 2023,” Schillemat reports. “We’re gearing up to launch a mentorship program for women in skilled trades. It’s going to include an outreach component where we send some of our members to schools to talk about different skilled trades options and to show that there are women doing trades here and that you can have a long career in skilled trades and still take time off and have a family; those bumps in a career are things that men don’t have to account for. “We try to offer anything we can to keep women who want to be in the industry to stay in the industry and then provide leadership training and support as their careers progress. We are partnering with our schools on that and with Fleming College, which already has a Building Bridges Program where they connect some of their students with people in skilled trades.” Females currently make up only five percent of the skilled trades workforce and there is a shortage of thousands of skilled workers in Ontario. The Building Bridges Program at Fleming aims to help close the gap between the supply of skilled tradespeople and the growing demand. To that end, the college plans to double the female enrolment in its School of Trades & Technology by 2026. The Building Bridges Program hopes to empower and encourage female students with group and one-on-one mentorship provided by industry members and Fleming experts; provide networking and engagement opportunities that will help students build connections among industry leaders and young professionals; and provide scholarships to help reduce the financial barriers to learning a trade. “We’re also doing a mini-trade show for the first time,” Schillemat adds. “I have a few speakers lined up and they’re going to provide some education and some members will have booths. “People can learn what the members have to offer. Students are going to come to our trade show to see what’s happening in homebuilding and potentially meet employers, and the members will get educated on some new and innovative products, as well as best practices,”Schillemat predicts. Educating the membership Another facet of the PKHBA mission is keeping THE PETERBOROUGH & THE KAWARTHAS HOME BUI LDERS ASSOCIAT ION