These interviews shed light on a reality that also emerges from the many testimonials collected: being hired on a job site doesn’t necessarily mean being able to practise the trade you want or advance in it. For some women who enter the industry through labour pools, the path to their chosen trade can be particularly difficult.
How can we change things? Rather than dwelling on the obstacles, Les Elles de la construction now want to focus on solutions. The idea is simple: identify what works, share it and expand the practices that help women enter a trade, develop their skills and stay in it.
From integration to advancement: Acting on several fronts
Being hired on a job site doesn’t guarantee that you’ll be able to practise your chosen trade there and advance in it. For that to happen, several things need to come together: access to the right training, the chance to learn from experienced people, accumulating work hours and working in an environment that supports job retention.
Through the F.I.C. program, Les Elles de la construction want to act on different aspects of women workers’ career paths: access to training, learning on job sites and the conditions that support job retention. Here are the main areas of work.
1. Better information for better career guidance
What are the paths into the different trades? What training is required? What are the opportunities for advancement? Women need to be able to get clear answers to these questions so they can make informed choices and plan their careers.
2. Supporting training plans
The construction industry will need 16,000 new workers to meet its labour needs. Companies are looking for qualified people, and vocational training is an important path into the skilled trades. The F.I.C. program aims to support participants in their study plans, taking into account their situation and goals. Some participants in the first cohort, including Kathleen and Marie-Pier, have started vocational training programs. The goal is to help each participant find the path that fits her plans and acquire the skills she needs to practise the trade that interests her.
3. Making prevention a priority
In construction, the body is a real work tool. Knowing how to use it, adopting good work methods and preventing injuries are essential to having a lasting career in a trade. Activities focused on ergonomics, prevention and work methods therefore play an important role in the program. They are also among the activities participants appreciate most. What they teach can benefit the industry’s entire workforce.
4. Better accounting for the realities of work on job sites
Travel, mobility, schedules and family responsibilities are also part of women workers’ reality. How can we better support those who have to balance the demands of the job site with their family life? What measures can companies put in place to make their daily lives easier and help them stay on the job? The program aims to open the discussion on these questions and identify concrete solutions suited to the realities on the ground.
A committee to highlight practices that work
To go further, the F.I.C. program will set up a committee bringing together experts from the construction, training and employability sectors, as well as women already working in the industry.
The idea is to pool experience from the field. What makes daily life easier for women workers? Which practices help them advance in their trade? What are some companies already doing that could inspire others?
The committee’s mission will be to highlight initiatives that work, share positive experiences and propose concrete, measurable courses of action.
These discussions will lead to the creation of a reference document bringing together effective practices and concrete solutions to support the integration, advancement and retention of women in construction. The goal: to give women workers and companies practical ideas and inspire other sectors to follow suit.
Supporting women in their career choices
This move from the job site to the trade is precisely what the Les Elles de la construction F.I.C. program is designed to support. Through hands-on activities, job site visits and meetings with women workers, employers and training stakeholders, each participant can explore different trades and better understand the realities of work in the field.
This support helps them clarify their interests, discover the opportunities open to them and determine the next steps in their career path. Depending on their plans, they are then guided toward the training and steps that will allow them to develop their skills and, as a priority, obtain their competency certificate.
Speaking on 104.7 Outaouais, Stéphanie Lévesque, general contractor and F.I.C. project manager at Les Elles de la construction, summed up this commitment to each participant: “We’ll still support her through it, and we’ll take her all the way.”
The next cohort of the F.I.C. program will begin at the end of January 2027. Because supporting women’s presence in construction also means giving them the means to learn, advance and build a career there.
