We Are WIST

The first graduating class of Women in Skilled Trades (WIST) in Michigan. Graduates receive a certification that is recognized by any union training facility in the country.

Promoting better lives for women through skilled trades.

By Carol Cool

I was working for Michigan State University in 2016 when my circle of friends met for happy hour at our favorite establishment. At one point, my friend Tori Menold leaned across the table and said, “I want to do something to help the women of our community. I want to start an apprenticeship readiness program (ARP) for women. Would you help me?” It sounded like a reasonable idea to me. Tori, like me, was also a construction project manager, so it wasn’t too far out of our wheelhouse. I said that I would be glad to help.

Then I asked the most important question: “What is an apprenticeship readiness program, and how do you start one?”

Our first stop in the journey to launching Women in Skilled Trades (WIST) was the Greater Lansing Women’s Center. With all the barriers to women in construction, we wanted to have their resources behind us. They agreed and became our fiduciary. The next stop was the Associated General Contractors, whose director of workforce development was excited to lend a hand — she had the union training facility connections that we would need.

We contacted the local Department of Labor and their apprenticeship and training representative took a seat at our table to help give direction and a view from the federal side of things. We connected with the local employment office. Their apprenticeship liaison joined us to round out our advisory committee. The only thing we lacked was a little more construction experience on the team, so we invited a mutual friend from Michigan State University’s Planning Design and Construction Department. She had a background in construction and worked as a performance manager; she helped us track our effort. The professional diversity of the group we pulled together would be strategic to implementing our plan for the ARP and helped to make us a strong team.

After researching ARPs for women across the country, we decided that North America’s Building Trades Unions (NABTU) Multi-Craft Core Curriculum, or MC3, would be the basis of our program. It came with an outline of the classes and all the necessary teaching resources. We met with the Michigan Building Trades Council to gain their support, and I attended the requisite “train the trainer” class. With those two hurdles cleared, we were accepted by NABTU and gained access to the MC3.

Finally, it was time to roll out WIST. We took applications and conducted interviews in early 2019. Our first cohort started in March with six women. Two were single mothers looking to support their families. One, a teenager living in a homeless shelter. Another almost quit because her husband wouldn’t take care of the kids when she had class. We were able to help her stay with the program, which is free for students.

They were all looking for a way to better themselves and their lives.

We augmented the curriculum with classes in strength training and a more comprehensive sexual harassment awareness class. Both issues are big deterrents to women entering the skilled trades. To incorporate hands-on training and the perspective of various trades, we scheduled Saturday field trips to union training facilities. This helps the women choose a trade that best suits them. Our classes were on Tuesday and Thursday evenings so working women could attend.

The last piece of our program is a mentorship plan to support the women through their first two years of apprenticeship. Our community has supported this mission from the onset. Michigan State University gave us training space, our instructors all volunteered their time, and I became certified to teach the OSHA safety classes. Prior to our first class, a local Rotary Club awarded us a grant that enabled us to give the women a stipend each week to help offset costs for transportation and/or childcare. The grant also paid for training materials and tools to start the women on their journey.

We’ve had a total of four cohorts go through our program since our inception and we will begin our fifth cohort this month. Our applicants come from all across the state because they have learned the value of WIST (the MC3 certification our graduates earn is recognized by any union training facility in the country). We are constantly tweaking our program based on feedback from each cohort and have added hours to make sure we are covering important topics like blueprint reading and construction math in more depth. Soon we will have our own education facility.

As for the women in that first cohort: one is a fourth-year carpentry apprentice, one runs heavy equipment on construction sites, one is an apprentice electrician, and another installs cabinetry. One is going to college in construction management, and one decided to go in another direction. At their graduation, I spoke on what we thought WIST was going to be when we started. We discovered that it wasn’t about creating a non-profit, though we did (WIST is now incorporated and a 501c3). It wasn’t about our egos, though we are proud of what we’ve done, and even more so of our graduates. It wasn’t about getting more women into the skilled trades, though that is what we do. It was about them, the graduates and all the women who would come after them. It was and is about lifting women up.

We are WIST, promoting better lives for women through skilled trades.

About the Author: Carol Cool recently retired from 30 years in the construction industry. She is a proud co-founder of WIST, an available resource to any woman in the trades regardless of if they are WIST graduates.