Wednesday, April 16, 2025

Inspiring a New Generation

CLAC initiatives are encouraging and supporting women in the skilled trades

Women in Construction Week celebrated its 65th anniversary earlier last month. Held every year during the first week of March, the North America-wide event was established to highlight all the great initiatives and advancements of women in the industry.

CLAC not only celebrates the achievements of women in the skilled trades, but we also recognize them as vital to solving the labour shortage in Canada’s construction industry. We fully embrace the national Supporting Women in Trades (SWiT) program, which aims to inspire a new generation of women to build their careers in a traditionally male-dominated sector. Our goal is to attract more female apprentices, find them jobs through CLAC-signatory employers, and continue to support them as members by providing helpful information, advice, and mentorship.

Canada needs 167,000 new apprentices to meet the demands of future construction projects, both private and public. In recent years, CLAC has spearheaded several projects to increase recruitment and support our signatory contractors. We have trained new apprentices and workers through our apprenticeship support (CASP) and bootcamp programs as well as the CLAC Career Development College (CCDC) in Edmonton.

Supporting women means fighting to remove systemic obstacles that prevent them from entering and staying in the trades. This means ensuring women feel comfortable, safe, and supported in construction workplaces.

Companies can employ several best practices to make this happen:

Understand and communicate your workplace environment and culture.
Post and implement a workplace respect policy.
Treat harassment complaints seriously and immediately.
Provide comprehensive site and safety orientation.
Provide safety training and properly fitting personal protective equipment.

Employing women provides companies with a new pool of talent, and gender-diverse teams are proven to improve on-site efficiency, quality, and morale. Construction companies with a diverse workforce extend their market reach by appealing to clients with diversity requirements. Gender-diverse workplaces also show higher levels of productivity and improved health and safety.

As construction sites are starting to become more accessible—women-only washrooms that are private and safe, pregnancy and maternity supports, and properly fitting PPE—there has never been a better time for women to enter the trades. CLAC is committed to walking with women on every step of their journey to secure, well-paid, and fulfilling careers in construction.

Empowering Women to Lead

Many women in construction feel the need for mentorship from other women. At the same time, female leaders on the job site face unique challenges.

To address these challenges, and to help build a community of female leaders in the skilled trades, CLAC has created the Empowering Women to Lead program, a leadership training program for women in the trades that includes the following:

Leadership training through the Supervisor Micro-Certification Program (SMCP)
Self-awareness and personal development training, including an individual leadership assessment, personalized report, and coaching
Mental health first aid certification to help participants support psychologically safe workplaces
Mentorship and a capstone exercise

Visit clac.ca/swit or contact your CLAC Training Team to learn more.

Inspiring a New Generation

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