It’s not every day that a 19-year-old woman doles out career advice to a group comprised of women mostly older than herself.

But that was the case for apprentice carpenter Nicole Scott who on International Women’s Day shared her short but interesting on-the-job experience with a dozen other women from across Cape Breton. On Monday, the latest 12 participants of the Women Unlimited Association’s Career Exploration Program (CEP) toured the work site where Scott has been working since last July.

“It’s cool – I really like it,” said Scott, who had previously attended the trades program at Memorial High School in Sydney Mines.

“You just have to be able to work hard and take a joke just like anybody else on a construction site would do – so work hard, but don’t take the banter too seriously.”

Bernadette Johnson, a site co-ordinator with the not-for-profit Women Unlimited organization, said Monday’s visit to the under-construction Membertou Place was the first jobsite tour the program has been able to do since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“It’s great to be out at a construction site and especially on International Women’s Day – it’s time to count us in,” said Johnson, who explained the program is for women interested in the trades or technologies.

“It’s definitely time for more women to work in construction in Cape Breton.”

The numbers agree. According to the Nova Scotia Construction Sector Council, female journey persons account for only three per cent of the province’s 14,500 person construction workforce. It also estimates that about six per cent of the total number are female apprentices.

The council’s industry community engagement co-ordinator Rochelle Hatcher said Monday’s site visit was an initiative that came out of a partnership that also involved Lindsay Construction, the firm tasked with putting up the three-storey, 55,000 square-foot commercial building on Membertou First Nation land not far from the four-year-old Membertou Sport and Wellness Centre.

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