Milwaukee Tools Lends a Hand to TACC

   

The power of social media is real. Some may see platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram just as a way to share what you’re doing, what you’re eating, what you’re thinking, but it’s more than that. As an organization, we see social media as a way to share our mission, to inspire others, and to build relationships with not only with our individual followers, but with other organizations and companies. We are here to build a community with those who believe in empowering women, encouraging workforce diversity in the trades, and promoting visibility for apprenticeships among other core values… And build a community, we have.

We are so incredibly grateful for the wide variety of connections we have made through these social media channels. Late in 2017, we saw that little red “1” icon in the top right corner of our Instagram feed, signifying that someone send us a private message. The message read, “Hi! I’d like to get involved with your organization. Can you please point me in the right direction? Thank you!” Touched by the fact that someone went out of their way to reach out to us and express a desire to engage, we connected them to Lisa Palermo, our Development Director. Little did we know that this person worked for Milwaukee Tools, a distinguished power tool manufacturer from Wisconsin known for their innovation and high quality. As it turns out, the president of Milwaukee Tools had seen a post of ours on Instagram and was compelled to learn more about Oregon Tradeswomen and our mission. Wanting to support diversity in the industry as well as invest in the community, he tasked someone to make the connection with us.

In supporting the work we do, Milwaukee Tools made the incredibly generous offer to outfit our pre-apprencticeship program, Trades and Apprenticeship Career Class (TACC), with brand new tools! TACC students have been using the same rusty, second-hand tools for far too long, so this gesture was graciously received. They donated enough tools to replace almost all of our older, dilapidated tools. It is so important that the women in our program have more than adequate equipment so they can really learn how to use tools without frustration due to malfunction or poor quality. We want our tradeswomen to be job-ready and it means the world to us that Milwaukee Tools wants to help our students have the best experience entering the trades possible. 

What started as a simple Instagram message blossomed into a truly special partnership. We are humbled by the fact that a highly reputable company intentionally sought us out to get involved and help us on our mission. We extend our deepest thanks to Milwaukee Tools for donating their high quality equipment to our pre-apprenticeship program, improving the experiences of the women who we are training to enter the workforce!

BIKETOWN: Champions for a Diverse, Representative Workforce

Oregon Tradeswomen is grateful to BIKETOWN for their partnership and commitment to a diverse, representative workforce. We’re also thankful that they loaned us a small fleet of Biketown bikes for Oregon Tradeswomen staff to use at our annual Career Fair! The bikes were incredibly helpful to our staff and added quite a pop of color to the event!

Oregon Tradeswomen served on an advisory panel prior to Biketown’s launch in 2016, and since then, Biketown has employed five Oregon Tradeswomen pre-aprenticeship class graduates: Max Beyelia, Alex Styner, Cassandra Czubachowski, Anna Beck, and Heather Hogate.

Dorothy Mitchell, Biketown’s General Manager, was “forward thinking about Biketown staff, and from the ground up, built a vision for how the staff would look, how hiring would happen, and she was very thoughtful about who she worked with to connect with and hire employees”, explained Tom Rousculp, Marketing Manager for Biketown. “Dorothy focused on working with a few organizations, including Oregon Tradeswomen. She wanted to have a representative staff for the whole organization”.

Dorothy said, “Oregon Tradeswomen grads have exceeded our hopes and expectations from day one. OT grads come to us with the right skills and attitude to hit the ground quickly doing the hard work of keeping a bike share program running. They have been among our most dependable employees, and we value the diversity they add to our operation as we work to make bike share more equitable from the inside out.”

Alex and Max were promoted into leadership positions, at Biketown, and Max and Anna have been with Biketown since its launch in July of 2016. Max commented that: “Biketown has a primarily female leadership team and goes at great length to promote an equitable and diverse workforce. I could not speak more highly of their integrity as a partner to our community.”

Thank you again, Biketown for your incredible partnership! We applaud your work and the good you do for our community!

Fathers and Daughters: Rod and Melanie Belisle

 

Often times it is the son who follows in his father’s footsteps to a career in the trades, but the Belisle family is a bit different. Rod Belisle is the Executive Director at the NECA-IBEW Electrical Training Center in Portland, Oregon and it is his daughter Melanie who has found success in the trades as an electrician.

Rod’s story began in high school when he worked for his father who was a general contractor. After Rod graduated, he continued to work for his father, operating heavy machinery. It was on a job, excavating for an electrical company that belonged to his father’s friend, when his interest in becoming an electrician was ‘sparked’. Both Rod’s father and his father’s friend encouraged him to pursue a career as an electrician. The rest is history: Rod has worked at the NECA-IBEW Electrical Training Center for 19 years!

Rod’s daughter Melanie initially had no interest in doing what her father did until her mother encouraged her to visit Oregon Tradeswomen’s annual Career Fair. There, Melanie had the chance to speak with the now retired Executive Director of Oregon Tradeswomen, Connie Ashbrook, who talked Melanie into entering Oregon Tradeswomen’s Trades and Apprenticeship Career Class (TACC). Melanie was initially drawn to the sprinkler-fitter trade, but as TACC progressed, she found a new interest in the electrical trade.

Melanie’s plan to become an electrician actually surprised Rod, but he supported her decision 100%. To make sure she was serious about her career choice, Rod encouraged Melanie to work as a material handler as she awaited placement into the apprenticeship program. Because of her father’s high ranking in the organization, he made it clear that he would have to be completely separate from her at work to maintain professionalism and avoid any conflicts of interest.

In the five years Melanie has been part of IBEW Local 48, she has earned her own level of respect. She is now a journeyman wireman. She has had a good experience as a woman in the industry and was given her the chance to prove herself on her own merit.

Melanie values her connection with her father and likes having someone close to her who she can talk about work with and who understands what its like to be an electrician. Melanie also thinks its exciting to be following in her father’s footsteps all while breaking stereotypes of sons being the only ones to join their fathers in the trades.

Rod has always been aware of the need for more women in the trades and having Melanie pursue a career as an electrician just enhanced his dedication to supporting women to succeed in this male-dominated industry. His vision for the future of women in the industry is the expectation that any woman could apply for an apprenticeship and be treated exactly the same as any man. He would also like to see a social climate where it is not a surprising thing to see women working on a construction site. He also hopes the same for men who are interested in careers traditionally labeled as “women’s jobs”, such as nursing.

Melanie hopes to see more women in the trades, too, not only on the job site, but as supervisors, managers, inspectors, and other leadership positions. It is important to have all aspects of the industry reflecting the idea that women are fully competent and that trades careers are not just for men.

Rod is incredibly proud of Melanie for her hard work in establishing herself as an electrician and is glad that she chose to pursue it as a career. Her hard work and perseverance is apparent and Rod knows that his daughter has the right stuff to live her dream. He looks forward to the day when Melanie achieves her goal of becoming a foreman.

Rod sets a phenomenal example of how to be an ally and how to support a young woman to succeed in apprenticeship and a thrive in a career in the trades.

We wish Rod and all the other fathers a very Happy Fathers Day!

Oregon Tradeswomen and NAWIC Host Workshops for Girl Scouts!

On June 2, 2018, Oregon Tradeswomen was delighted to partner with the Portland National Association of Women in Construction (NAWIC) chapter to host a troupe of Girl Scouts in our classroom!

The Girl Scouts were invited to participate in two workshops focused on construction and building projects led by tradeswomen. In the morning, 9 Junior Girl Scouts took part in a gardening workshop and built planter boxes to be used as containers for their very own zen gardens they designed themselves. A group of 3 Senior Girl Scouts collaborated in a “Room Makeover” workshop in the afternoon. All the Girl Scouts had the opportunity to gain experience using hand and power tools as well as measuring, cutting, and assembling the pieces.

The goal of these workshops was to expose young women to the construction trades by having them learn how to use construction equipment, empowering them to use their hands to build functional items, and giving them the chance to talk to and learn from women who work in the building trades. Many women, old and young, have the impression that there is no place for them in construction. Oregon Tradeswomen actively works to change those perceptions and show women and girls that these opportunities are indeed open to them and that building is fun, rewarding, and that they can be successful!

The Girl Scouts had such a great time during these workshops that the Girl Scouts of Oregon and Washington are looking in to putting these workshops into the Girl Scout Program Guide for Fall/Winter 2018/19!

NIETC Is Hosting Apprenticeship Information Sessions!

Our friends at the NECA-IBEW Electrical Training Center (NIETC) are committed to offering education and providing resources to help more students and career seekers access careers in the skilled trades through registered apprenticeship!

This year, they are organizing four informational panels which will provide a general overview of apprenticeship and an open discussion with Apprenticeship Coordinators from specific trades. Attendees will have an opportunity to connect with the Apprenticeship Coordinators and network with others at the event.

The dates for the Informational Panel for the Union Building Trades Apprenticeship Programs are as follows:

September 7, 2018
9:30 – 11:00am

Portland Sheet Metal Institute
2379 NE 178th Ave
Portland, OR 97230
Pre-registration is not required!

December 3, 2018

Two identical sessions:

  • 8:20 am – 10:20 am – pre-register HERE
  • 11:50 am – 1:50 am – pre-register HERE

Career Technical Education Center
3501 Portland Rd NE
Salem, OR 97301

Pre-registration for the general public is required unless you are a CTEC student or have arranged to attend through your Salem-Keizer school.

Oregon Tradeswomen’s 2018 Career Fair Wrap-Up

On May 18th and 19th, Oregon Tradeswomen held our 26th Annual Career Fair and it was one of our best years ever! This enormously impactful event, graciously hosted once again by the NECA-IBEW Electrical Training Center, featured more than 100 companies and organizations representing the trades and other non-traditional career paths for women, and offered insights into the possibilities of a future in those careers to more than 2,300 students and adult career seekers.

To make the Career Fair more accessible and easier to navigate, Oregon Tradeswomen worked with event app developer Crowd Compass to create our very own application for the event. The application included an interactive map, a list of exhibitors, activity schedules, and a social feed for attendees to share about their experiences at Fair throughout the day.

Building birdhouses with Skanska!

Career Fair attendees were met with unique opportunities to not only talk to employers at exhibit tables, but also participate in hands-on activities and workshops. From using an excavator to pick up a tire with the Operating Engineers Local 701, to building a birdhouse with Skanska, the experiences offered at Oregon Tradeswomen’s Career Fair visibly stirred excitement about the construction trades among the participants.

Melinda of the IUOE Local 701 teaching a young woman how to use an excavator!

The most raucous enthusiasm came from the middle and high school girls who attended the Career Fair on Friday May 18th, School Girls’ Day. With record attendance, 75 schools came from as far south as Roseburg and as far north as Castle Rock bringing more than 1,300 students! Many of these young women had never imagined a future in the trades for themselves, but after participating in workshops and talking to tradeswomen, they began to see that their interests aligned with some of the careers introduced to them at the Career Fair. The school girls were so moved by their experiences that we heard back from several schools. A teacher from Madras said,

“We’ve been taking students for the past 12+ years and it gets better each year.”

Even the whole Pendleton School District wrote back saying,

“[We] attended the recent Career Fair for the first time ever and had an absolutely amazing time. We brought 30+ middle school and high school students who positively glowed with excitement about the experience on the ride home and are already looking forward to next year. We loved the wide range of exhibits and activities and the staff and exhibitors were so inspiring.”

School Girls Day at Oregon Tradeswomen’s 26th Annual Career Fair!

Usually, Friday’s School Girls’ Day outshines the Saturday crowd, but this year Saturday was nearly as busy as Friday with more than 1,000 people flowing in and out of the NECA-IBEW Electrical Training Center to participate in hands-on activities and speak with representatives at their exhibit booths! A few of the students from Friday returned to the Career Fair on Saturday with their friends and families to show them the workshops and careers that sparked a genuine interest!

One of the crowd favorite, and overall inspirational elements of Oregon Tradeswomen’s annual Career Fair was the Tradeswomen Fashion Show where real women working in the trades and other nontraditional careers had their moment on stage and in the spotlight, to talk about what their job entails, how they came to be tradeswomen, and why they love the work they do.

Fashion Show participants at Oregon Tradeswomen’s 26th Annual Career Fair!

Oregon Tradeswomen annual Career Fair is important because it is a place where women and girls can see other women who are successful in an industry where you don’t see very women. It was truly inspiring to see how many women of all ages discover that they, too, can pursue these careers. It all goes back to our favorite adage, “If you can see it, you can be it!”