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 BOLT Women in Construction scholarship supports female apprentices

When her high school automotive instructor encouraged her to pursue a career in welding, Samara Sampson thought, why not?

She signed up for the Welding and Technologies program at Algonquin College in Ottawa, earned her certificate and started to look for work.

What the Ontario resident didn’t anticipate was that her decision would lead her to the sheet metal industry, where she became the ninth of only 13 women to join SMART Local 285 in Toronto and one of two female apprentices to receive the inaugural BOLT Women in Construction scholarship as she completed her Red Seal-endorsed trade certificate last year.

Now, at 31, Sampson is on a mission to inspire other women to see themselves in construction. “I had no idea what apprenticeships were. They didn’t send any unions into our high school; they sent colleges, universities, the military, but no talk of the trades. The only avenue I knew was college so that’s what I did,” said Sampson.

The irony, she said, is that both her grandfather and her partner are sheet metal workers and yet, neither saw it as a career path for her until their foreman suggested it.

When she started her apprenticeship — which entailed three blocks of school and nearly 9,000 hours of work — Sampson’s first thought was: “Why do women think they can’t do this job?”

In Ontario, only four per cent of on-site construction workers are women and only 4.8 per cent of new apprentice registrations are women, half of which don’t complete their apprenticeship.

The Building Opportunities for Life Today (BOLT) Women in Construction scholarship program, delivered in partnership with Support Ontario Youth and Ontario Building and Construction Tradeswomen (OBCTradeswomen), aims to improve that by offering financial support and mentorship to female apprentices during the in-class training portion of their apprenticeships.

“Recruitment is half the battle,” said Raly Chakarova, executive director of the BOLT Charitable Foundation, founded by Tridel in 2009 to create awareness about the diversity of careers in construction and to help under-resourced youth access opportunities.

“Once we’ve recruited, especially women or other under-represented groups in the industry, we need to make sure there is a welcoming environment so they’ll stay,” said Chakarova. “We all have this idea of what construction is and what a construction worker is. Our goal is to unravel and remake that.”

This year, the BOLT Women in Construction program is awarding six scholarships; three are already decided and three more will be available in May. Each recipient receives $500 to put towards training costs and is partnered with a female mentor in their trade.

Samson put a portion of her scholarship towards a drafting table so she could work from home and plans to pass it down to another female apprentice. As a fully certified sheet metal worker, she now works alone on the job, installing ductwork and piping in new residential homes.

Her company and her union were extremely supportive from the start, she said, but she still struggles with acceptance and adversity from time to time, hearing whispers behind her back or being ignored completely, and on occasion being mistaken for a cleaner.

“There were times I went home crying,” said Sampson. “I told myself I had something to prove, but I promised it wasn’t going to be to anyone else. I was going to prove to myself and to other women: I can do this, you can do this, we can do this.”

Not only is Sampson a strong BOLT supporter, helping to promote the second round of scholarships and speaking at the foundation’s International Women’s Day #BreakTheBias Speak Out event, but she’s also an ambassador within her international union and an OBCTradeswomen member, working to attract more women to construction.

“Sheet metal can look like so many things depending on what you want it to be,” she said. “You’re never going to know until you try. You’re never going to get fast until you get good. And you’re never going to get good until you practice.”

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