Community & Business
26 March, 2022
Girls turn to trades
GIRLS at Mareeba State High School swapped pencils for power tools last Friday as a part of the Supporting and Linking Tradeswomen (SALT) program, encouraging young women to enter trades and grow their confidence in the industry.
Founder and Director Fiona Shewring has been in the industry for 30 years and expressed her concern for the lack of women in area of trades.
She then explored the reasons why women were more reluctant to enter careers as chippies or sparkys and used her findings to develop the SALT program which she now delivers to schools across the region.
The school turned the sports hall into a fullblown workshop, setting up several stations for groups of four girls to utilise.
Although nervous at the start, Ms Shewring couldn’t believe the level of confidence that grew in the participants throughout the workshop.
“They were nervous to begin with - which is not a bad thing because you do need to be respectful of tool and be conscious of our safety and they have been,” she said.
“They have been following us and doing really well and they grew a lot of confidence throughout the day.
“It takes the full workshop to get them to a point they are confident and happy with using tools and other equipment.”
Grade 10 girls Akabu Mooka and Gracie Brim were encouraged by a support teacher to participate in the SALT program and said they enjoyed learning about opportunities in trade and letting their creative juices flow.
“(Transition Pathways Officer) Ms Ann- Maree came to us while we were in the office one day and gave us a piece of paper telling us all about the program and we wanted to do it,” Akabu said.
“We really like it, there’s been a few mistakes here and there, but we are learning.”
“We’ve been cutting wood up to fit the base and we used the hand saws and done a lot of measuring and we are getting the hang of it very quicky,” Gracie said.
“It’s been really good and really fun.”
Throughout the day, Ms Shewring spoke with the girls about their career choices, with the girls chatting amongst themselves about their options when they leave school.
