“Help
wanted: 11-week training in carpentry, electrical, and plumbing. Step Up for
Women - employment-based training with job placement emphasis at no cost to
students. No experience required. Call WV Women Work or apply online.”
That’s copy
that recently ran in the Preston County Penny Saver and in similar newspapers
throughout the state. Janis Gunel has been the director of WV Women Work for
the past ten years.
“I don’t
know how it is now, but it used to be that women were basically asked to go
into home ec and not shop. I think some of that has changed now, but still, I
think a lot of women are not encouraged to go into these non-traditional
training programs. Well the problem is, later on, when they get into their 20s
and 30s, the guys are in occupations that are making more money.”
“And there
you have it. You have someone who is 35 years old and she’s all of a
sudden in the position where she needs to make money to support her children
and she doesn’t have the background that the guy has. You can see that this is
an area that definitely women need to be introduced to.”
The primary
focus of the organization’s activities has been to help women explore, train,
and secure employment in nontraditional occupations, especially the skilled trades.
The headquarters is in Morgantown. The main program offered
state-wide is called Step Up for Women and there are three active skilled
trades training sites in the state – in Morgantown, Martinsburg, and Charleston. Kristinia Szczyrbak is the
north-central program coordinator.
Pointing to a wall of
dozens of photographs of women working a variety in labor jobs, she says the
organization reaches a truly diverse variety of women.
“They’re like you and
they’re like me,” Szczyrbak says. “I think sometimes people have an idea—they
have this picture of what this woman who works construction is going to look
like. But they’re all just completely normal women just trying to support their
families.”
“They come in and they say,
‘I went to school and now I have all these student loans to pay back and the
job I can get isn’t going to do that.’ Or they say, ‘I’m a single mother and I
can’t work two and three jobs to pay the bills; I need to work one job.’ Some
have experience; others don’t. They’re just like any woman.”
Szczyrbak explains that the
Step Up for Women is an 11-week course that runs during daytime hours, Mondays
through Thursdays.
“On a typical day, we start
off in the classroom either with a math review or working with soft skills,
like resume-writing, job development, what an employers expects—all that kind
of stuff,” says Szczyrbak.
“Then we take some time,
usually in the morning, to go to the gym a few times a week to work on physical
ability. Then in the afternoons we do all the hands-on work. So that’s
electrical wiring, plumbing, carpentry skills. They actually get out the tools
and they do the work. That’s how they learn.”
In a world where only 10 percent
of today’s construction workforce is made of female workers, the Step-Up program
boasts an 80 percent job placement rate, with new graduates earning a minimum of $3
more per hour than a traditional job.
“Employers
are very receptive to our students and it’s because we’re not pitching a
woman-worker. Employers in construction are just like any other employers. They
just want somebody that’s going to show up every day. They’re going to be
capable of learning. They’re going to be dependable and trustworthy,” Szczyrbak
says.
“Because we
recruit and sort through all of that, what we’re turning out is a dependable
worker that knows their stuff. Not a hard sell. So employers are really
receptive to Step-Up graduates.”
The organization has so far
served more than 800 women in West Virginia with career coaching service,
computer literacy classes, and public career exploration workshops. Gunel and Szczyrbak
say they have many motivating success stories. Their small operation relies on yearly
federal, state, and private grants so that they can offer services to women for
free.
Gunel says many women who
enter the program lack self-confidence, but they often leave with different
attitudes.
“Part of what this class
does is, it really emboldens and shows women that yes, they can become
construction workers, and yes, you will get hired.”
The organization also just
began a new pilot program: Eight Penny Construction—a construction company of
their own that employs their graduates.