The annual Pizza, Pop and Power Tools event in Spokane, Wash., which introduces young women to the trades, started small in 2003 and offered a simple format, according to www.spokesman.com.
"We started with 17 girls that came and watched a video and had pizza," says Kenna May, manager of apprenticeship at Spokane Community College. "It's evolved since then."
Although the event typically invites eighth-grade girls to learn about trade careers, high school junior and senior girls attended instead this year to experience everything from welding to heavy equipment operation. Attendees had hands-on instruction followed by a pizza lunch that included three female speakers who work in the construction industry.
"Our apprenticeship programs are having difficulty getting women interested in the construction trade," May says. "We're trying to get the ones making decisions in the next couple of years."
May says all the local apprenticeship programs help with the event by paying for lunch and providing people to show the young women how to complete various tasks.
East Valley High School senior Sierra Suddreth says she saw a flyer about the event and wanted to attend. She has taken wood shop and metal shop at school and likes to weld. She has considered the Job Corps but realizes she has new options.
"I'm not really into the college thing," she says. "I don't mind doing the hands-on."
Brian Walter, organizer for Sheet Metal Workers Local 55, was at the event to answer questions and recruit girls who might be interested in a career with the Sheet Metal Workers. He says young people don't have to have experience to join an apprenticeship program, though taking shop classes does help; the only requirements are a high school diploma and a driver's license. Applicants go through an interview process and take a reading and writing test before they are selected.
He says now is the perfect time for young people to become involved with the trades: "Every trade is hurting for people."
