Young Women's Initiatives

Skills Ontario’s Young Women’s Initiatives is a collection of engaging and hands-on events and programs that provide skill development and mentorship opportunities to young women in grades 7 to 12. Skills Ontario hosts Career Exploration Events across Ontario from October to April, and Canada’s largest young women’s conference at the Skills Ontario Competition each year! Scroll down to start exploring!

For the 2020-2021 school year, Skills Ontario will continue to host all our regional Career Exploration Events and our Young Women’s Conferences in a virtual format!

Stay tuned! Skills Ontario has some exciting news coming up surrounding new programming, a Women in Trades Resource Hub, and other amazing offerings that will be announced throughout the 2020/2021 year!

Career Exploration Events

International Day of the Girl

Collaborating Organizations

Young Women's Conference

Thank you to our Young Women's Initiatives Partners:

This program is funded by the Government of Ontario.

Program Partners

Progressive Contractors Association of Canada

Supporting Partner

Skills Ontario Career Exploration Events

Flyer in PDF format

Previously, Skills Ontario hosted events in multiple locations across the province throughout the school year. Our Career Exploration Events are for young women to learn about careers in the skilled trades and technologies. These events provide participants the opportunity to integrate experiential workshops and networking with mentors. These events are held for secondary and senior elementary (grades 7-8) students.

Skills Ontario will be offering our Young Women’s regional programming in a similar timeline as we have in previous years. However, this year we will be hosting our programming in a virtual format! We will continue to have the amazing mentors and workshops that Skills Ontario is known for. Going virtual allows us to reach a larger audience and to offer more spaces for young women to learn about the skilled trades and technologies! We know this year will be a learning curve and we strive to keep everything as simple and consistent as possible as we all navigate working through COVID-19.

Events are hosted on Google Meets and allow for co-ed participation in order to follow new school policies where classes are unable to divide.

Each event has still been allocated a “location” as previous years. This is navigational to school boards/colleges.

Below is a list of our Young Women’s regional 2020/21 event offerings

NOTE - These dates are subject to change. All fall event dates may change up until the registration date of October 8th, 2020. All spring dates may change up until January.

Any changes will be based on health and safety guidelines issued by the provincial and federal government, school board/college policies regarding student travel and extra-curricular activities, and co-host location availability. Any date or location changes will announced on our webpage, and notifications will be sent to participants who have already registered.

Date	Virtual Region	Grades	Time	Co-Host
November 12th, 2020	Sault St. Marie	7-12	-	Sault College
November 16th, 2020	Timmins (Bilingual)	7-12	-	TBA
November 18th, 2020	Thunder Bay	7-12	-	KickAss Careers
November 20th, 2020	Kenora	7-12	-	KickAss Careers
November 25th and 26th, 2020	Guelph 1 & 2	7-12	-	Conestoga College
December 10th, 2020	Barrie	7-12	-	Georgian College
December 11th, 2020	Tiverton	7-12	-	Bruce Power/WSPS
February 4th, 2021	Belleville	7-12	9:30am-11:30am	Loyalist College
February 5th, 2021	Kapuskasing	7-12	9:30am-11:30am	TBA
February 24th and 25th, 2021	Ottawa 1 & 2 (Bilingual)	7-12	9:30am-11:30am	Algonquin College
February 25th, 2021	Brampton	7-12	9:30am-11:30am	Sheridan College
February 26th, 2021	Whitby	7-12	9:30am-11:30am	Durham College
March 4th, 2021	Sudbury	7-12	9:30am-11:30am	Cambrian College/Vale
March 5th, 2021	Niagara	7-12	9:30am-11:30am	TBA
April 1st, 2021	North Bay (Bilingual)	7-12	9:30am-11:30am	Canadore College

School/Student Registration

For the 2020-2021 school year, all regional Career Exploration Events will be free of charge.
Teachers and board contacts are to register students in grades 7-12.

To be allowed to participate, all participants under the age of 18 must complete an online digital informed consent form with a parent/guardian signature.

This year, Skills Ontario will again be using Eventbrite for the Career Exploration Event registration. Each Teacher or Board contact will register an entire class/cohort/bubble as one (1) ticket for the regional event they choose. In the “regional” events, if a co-host is listed, workshops will be based off of their programming/campus. The region you select does not have to be the region closest to your school board.

One ticket allows for one device to join the event. This link is not to be shared. Each event has a maximum number of devices that can log in. Each event login of a device is a registration through Eventbrite. Teachers are asked to share their screen with their class, either in-person in a classroom (ie from a projector or TV hooked up to their device) and/or in a virtual classroom by screen sharing. If a teacher has a class/cohort/bubble that is a combination of in-person and virtual students, we recommend that the device is connected to a projector or TV at the front of the class, while also logged into the virtual classroom and screensharing. If this is not possible to share in this recommended option, please contact rkappes@skillsontario.com – we are happy to discuss different options!

This system allows the most opportunities for students to join and attend each individual event. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email - this will not include the link to the event. A few days prior to the event you registered for, another email with the link to access Google Meets will be sent to you. Again, please ensure that this link is not shared.

If you have any questions, please contact rkappes@skillsontario.com.

Register Here!

Register a Guest

A guest is classified as a dignitary, community partner, sponsor, or other interested party who is not part of a school registration. Please email ywc@skillsontario.com to register.

Becoming a Mentor and/or Hosting a Workshop

Are you a woman who works in the skilled trades and technologies and looking to share your experience and skilled trade and technology? Volunteer as a mentor or to host a workshop at one of our events! Email ywc@skillsontario.com.

International Day of the Girl

International Day of the Girl Series - October 5th – 12th, 2020

The International Day of the Girl was established by the United Nations in 2012 and is recognized as a day to acknowledge girls and their rights, education, and opportunities. This year, the theme is: “My voice, our equal future.” Let's seize the opportunity to reimagine a better world inspired by girls – energized and recognized, counted and invested in.

Skills Ontario offered a series of free online events to celebrate the International Day of the Girl. We expanded beyond the official date of October 11th, 2020 to offer various opportunities for girls and their parents/guardians and family members to participate in! Skills Ontario celebrated through a three-part series:

1. A week of at-home challenges to try out the skilled trades and technologies for chances to win prizes!
2. A virtual workshop to learn new skills!
3. A For Girls, By Girls! virtual conference, where viewers can hear from girls and learn about the skilled trades and technologies!

Part 1 of the Series - International Day of the Girl Challenges

Skills Ontario challenged girls to try out activities relating to the five skilled trade and technology sectors for a chance to win prizes! We announced challenge winners on Twitter on October 16th.

Industrial Sector - Welding - Popsicle Stick Playgrounds Construction Sector - Iron Worker - Marshmallow Towers Automotive Sector - Automotive Repair Technician - Sail Cars
Service Sector - Fashion Design - Paper Dresses
Technology Sector - Programmer - Coding

Part 2 of the Series - International Day of the Girl Workshop - Homemade Ice Cream

This workshop inspired young girls by giving them firsthand experiences to develop their skills. Through our workshop, attendees were led through fun skilled trade and tech-related activities by Skills Ontario staff and volunteers/partners.

Part 3 of the Series - International Day of the Girl Celebration Event: For Girls, By Girls

This event was dedicated to empowering girls through relatable and engaging content. For Girls, By Girls provided viewers with the opportunity to listen to girls aged 5-11 discuss their perspectives of how they perceive the skilled trades and technologies, what they want to be when they grow up and why, what they think certain trades actually do, and what interests them!

There were encouraging messages from highly respected and influential leaders and tradespeople, including remarks from the Hon. Jill Dunlop, Associate Minister of Children and Women’s Issues and a keynote from Jamie McMillan, Ironworker/Boiler Maker, and founder of Kickass Careers.

Collaborating Organizations

Skills Ontario is on the forefront of making change in our province! We are thrilled to be partnering with women in skilled trade and technology organizations and groups to stand together and make an impact. We are united with the same goals and initiatives and will promote exciting opportunities for women through skill development, mentorship, networking, and experiential learning opportunities at our Young Women’s Career Exploration Events and Young Women’s Conference.