Canadore College's 'Aboriginal Women in Trades' program a success

Canadore College in North Bay is celebrating a 100 per cent success rate in a unique training program geared towards Aboriginal women who want to enter the world of trades.

For the past 12 weeks, 15 students were part of the Aboriginal Women in Trades program.

The students received hands-on trainingin four different trades, said Judy Manitowabi, manager of community based learning at Canadore's First Peoples' Centre: plumbing, electrical, carpentry and building construction.

Opportunity for women to bring trades skills back to home communities

"Some of these women are going home now and have skills, potential skills where they can further develop them in their communities by working with their housing departments," Manitowabi said.

"Although jobs are very limited back in the home communities...at least now they can offer some experience, along with skills for these types of jobs."

The school received funding from the Ontario Poverty Reduction Fund to offer this course, Manitowabi said. And because of its success rate, the Centre will be providing fundsagain.

"The funding that we received was a 24 month funding cycle, so we're going to plan again for next summer. We're going to start recruiting for a new cohort to take the program, starting in June 2017," she said.