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Delivery agent and target audience: SIAST /Skills Canada Sask

After several years of discussion, they finally agreed to develop a new program with Skills Canada Saskatchewan that was a major departure from our regular programming. They included boys and girls in the mix. This was a one-day Saturday workshop for grades 8 and 9 students that focussed on metal-working trades. The instructors were primarily women with some assistance from regular program instructors. They ran this program at all 4 campuses over the course of a few years.

Delivery Agent and Target audience / Reach: Skills Canada Sask / SaskWITT/SIAST
Partners & Supporters: Provincial School Boards and Schools; SaskPower; SK Homebuilder’s Associations; Assorted Building Trades Unions; Employers; Suppliers of Building Products and Safety Equipment

In 1997, WITT NN partnered with Skills Canada to host an interactive display at one of the first Canadian competitions held in Red Deer Alberta. Because of our proximity to Red Deer and because SaskWITT was such an active WITT organization, they sent two of our established members to coordinate the event. Armed with a van full of tools and materials, they managed to involve passersby in the display to assemble and test-drive a go cart in the course of one day.

Over the next 2 years, Saskatchewan mobilized partnerships and began a Skills Canada chapter of their own. Overend sat on the original steering committee in Regina and this led to delivery of annual Young Women’s conferences for grades 11 and 12 girls in conjunction with Saskatchewan’s annual competitions.

For approximately the next 15 years, they delivered conferences in Moose Jaw, Saskatoon, and Regina, including a National conference in Saskatoon in 2009. They were able to reach high school girls from all across the province on an occasional basis. They typically prepared for up to 100 girls but, with conferences held in March, often fell short because of Saskatchewan weather.

In 2009, Overend applied for SaskWITT funding to produce a Poster Series *Not Your Average Girl, Give Skilled Trades a Whirl!” They hired a photo-journalist/member, Barb Parchman to interview and photograph 15 of our members who worked or trained in various TTO occupations around the Province. These posters were set up on easels for the National Young Women’s Conference and used at subsequent conferences as well as other career events throughout the years.

The event built strong partnerships in each community and often led to support with other initiatives. They were able to train and groom tradeswomen/technicians and technologists from all over the province to work in career exploration initiatives for girls and women into TTO. Notably, we built substantial relationships with the Saskatoon and Regina area Homebuilders Associations, Building Trades Unions, and Northern partnerships that soon led us to a travelling outreach initiative – Northern Tours.

In 2003, Overend applied for funding from the Women’s Program, Status of Women Canada to support SaskWITT initiative to hold focus group meetings with the participants in the annual conference in Regina. Subsequently, she compiled a report *“Recommendations for Systemic Changes in Programming for Young Women into Skilled Trades”. This contributed to a foundation to enhance future deliveries across Canada, not only for Young Women’s conferences and increase participation of young women in the competitions but also for career exploration in high schools.

This file contains records regarding the program "Construction Technology for Women".
WITT National Network / SaskWITT/SIAST WITT Program
Partners and Supporters: Local School Boards and Schools; numerous Crown Corporations; Local Employers; Local Building Suppliers.

In the mid-nineties Overend sat on a National Steering Committee for WITT NN to develop and guide an ambitious, pan Canadian program called Construction Technology for Women. This was a three-year pilot project designed to encourage young women to enter into careers in construction. 125 young women participated in credit courses at six high schools (5 provinces) across Canada. The program included paid summer internships.
One of the pilot sites was in Balgonie SK, beginning in 1997. Overend was chair of local organizing committee and helped to hire and manage staff who ran the project on-site. Over the next several years, she worked with schools, school boards and Crown Corporations to establish other sites with solid partnerships. In addition to Greenall school delivery, the courses ran several times at Scott Collegiate and Miller Collegiate in Regina as well as Vanier Collegiate in Moose Jaw up until 2005.
In 1997, the program at Greenall School won an award for Promotion of Equity Participation at the annual Training for Excellence Awards Event sponsored by the Saskatchewan Labour Force Development Board (SLFDB).

Delivery agent and target audience: SaskWITT Regina. Usually delivered at capacity of 30 women per workshop. Continuous waitlist. Dozen of deliveries YWCA, WWTP Training Centre SIAST, Mcab Community Association, U of R continuing Education Centre.

In the mid-nineties, SaskWITT - Regina organized a series of Basic Home Repair Clinics for women in the Regina area for fundraising purposes. The funds were used to pay SaskWITT fee in the Annual Dragon Boat Races and for other social events and activities for local members. In later years, they split the proceeds and the tradeswomen shared 50% for their time. Besides the money, the Basic Home Repair Clinics provided an opportunity for WITT women to meet others, cross-train their shared trades skills and increase the profile of in the local women’s community. Each Clinic cleared over $1200, no small change in the 90’s.

They cut off enrollment at 30 women from the community and set up 16 task stations. Women would work in groups of 3 and rotate every 20 minutes (some stations were 40 or 60 minutes). A tradeswoman would provide a quick overview of the task and tool names and functions. The participants would then proceed to perform each task, asking questions as they went. Needham and Overend provided guidance on instructional skills and over time, I wrote up various guidelines for guest instructors.

Of course, delivery of the clinics had a huge spinoff effect for SaskWITT members– everyone involved bonded for a common cause. Delivering these workshops was a key component in the chemistry that held them together. The success of the clinics didn’t diminish the other very strong elements: their local Dragon Boat team and the myriad opportunities working as role models and instructors for all of the SIAST WITT programs across the province.

The Clinics were initially held on an as-needed basis depending on their need for funds. In later years, they held them twice a year for 4 years at the SaskWITT WWTP training centre. This provided some extra cash as well as reinforced learning for our apprentices. They sporadically held Clinics at the YWCA and at SIAST. In 2012 they adapted these for delivery for a local Community Association and held several clinics in their venue. Following up on publicity for this project, they agreed to run a modified version on occasional weekend for the University of Regina extension program.

A template for delivery of Basic Home Repair Clinics is included in a SaskWITT manual ''Care and Maintenance of Your Local WITT Group'' .This is a short step-by-step guide to be used by local WITT Groups for setting up a one-day basic home repair clinic for women at large. This includes all of the templates for promotion, preparation and delivery of a clinic.

Delivery agent and target audience: SIAST Palliser Campus. Moose Jaw, SK.

Overend designed this program with the assistance of Doreen Gurnsey, a drafting technician and a WITT Coordinator at Palliser Campus.This program was modelled after the Women in Trades Exploratory Course and was customized to profile the technology programs offered at SIAST Palliser Campus in Moose Jaw. As with the WIT Exploratory, the WiTECH Exploratory Course was meant to provide a template for a similar course at the other 3 Campuses. The 36-hour evening exploratory course focussed on shop/laboratory time in several different programs.

Selection of tasks was challenging because, unlike trades tasks, very few could be applied to a home situation. While the WIT course drew women who both wanted to work or train in trades, it also attracted women who simply wanted some basic home repair skills and knowledge. The WiTECH course did not have the same attraction and the audience was limited to women who wanted to enter a technical occupation but needed assistance in determining a good fit. Their biggest challenge was finding students to fill the seats. They targeted their focus on current students in high schools and in SIAST Adult Education programs. This was a good fit. They also were able to get seats sponsored by local corporations who were interested in attracting students. While Overend is not certain, she think they ran 4-5 deliveries, including one that was contracted exclusively by an Aboriginal high school in Regina who travelled in a van to Moose Jaw for 2 evenings per week. Ultimately, they finally settled on a successful model whereby various Crown Corporations sponsored individual high school girls to participate as a recruitment initiative. On a sad note, the deliveries were discontinued upon the death of Doreen Gurnsey in 2008. Possibly the program was picked up again in later years.

NB. Very limited information is available on this program because most of the documentation was sent to the Saskatchewan Provincial Archives in Regina.

Delivery agent and target audience: SIAST International Services

Overend participated in several aspects of a CIDA/ACCC Technical Education Reform project to address gender imbalance in Malawi. In addition to the reports and workshops below, she travelled in Malawi with a production crew conducting interviews and worked as a consultant on post-production services. They produced a video A World of Choices that was shown several times a day over the next year on the single television station that existed in Malawi.

Activity Report for the Malawi Technical Education Reform Project. August 12, 2002.
This report discusses Overend's day to day activities for the period from April 28 to May 12, 2002. The first week was spent with a video production crew from Canada and they travelled to various locations near Blantyre. The second week, she was on my own working with local educators to present 2 workshops, the first in Blantyre and the second in Llilongwe.

Workshop #1 - Retention of Women in Industrial and Technical Training Programs. For Technical teachers (post-secondary / tertiary) at Blantyre Polytechnic. May 7, 2002.
Overend prepared in advance and delivered a 3-hour workshop. The objectives were to assist participants to identify factors related to the retention of women in industrial and technical training programs and to link Malawi gender policy to strategies for change. She designed this workshop for Technical teachers, as requested, but participants included 12 personnel from Technical schools including management, program heads, instructors and counsellors.

Workshop #2 - Promotion of industrial and Technical Occupations to Girls. Teachers, Administrators and Guidance Counsellors (elementary / secondary) At TEVET Training Centre in Llilongwe. May 9, 2002.
Overend prepared and delivered a 6-hour workshop. The objectives were to assist the participants to identify factors contribute to low participation rates of girls in industrial and technical occupations and to link Malawi gender policy to direct intervention strategies for change aimed at girls in late primary and early secondary school settings.

WITT - Teveta Project. Power Point Presentation to SIAST staff and students (Regina)
Overend did not prepare this presentation, but included it here for informational purposes. Overend attended and responded to audience questions.

WITT Gender Awareness in Malawi - Training manual (draft). 2003
Drawing on the 2 pilot workshops in Malawi in May, Overend proceeded to develop a training program with more depth to assist teacher trainers with a tool to influence teachers in Malawi. By then, Overend had a better sense of the basic knowledge and scope of the audiences. The draft manual is broken down into 2 sections. One covers a 10-hour training program for Teacher Instructors. The other is a 6-hour workshop for teachers themselves and includes activity outlines and handouts. Overend have no information about follow-up activities with this project.