Sector is changing, but more efforts required to create a truly inclusive industry, battery-electric conference hears
For years now, the mining industry has been calling for change in the way it recruits its workforce, with an emphasis on bringing more women into the fold.
But any changes that have taken place are marginal at best, according to Nour Hachem-Fawaz, president and founder of Build a Dream, an organization that helps connect young girls and women to the skilled trades, STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) careers, and entrepreneurship.
Of the 7,000 general machinists working across Ontario, just 130 are women, she said, and among heavy duty equipment mechanics, fewer than 20 are women. Companies are investing money into attracting women, but without corresponding industry-wide changes, retention is poor, Hachem-Fawaz said.
“If we’re looking at the pipeline, the pipeline’s not even there; we don’t even have apprentices in the pipeline to get women into all the companies,” she said.
For the rest of this article: industry-news/mining/dramatic-shift-needed-to-attract-more-women-to-mining-panel-7105510
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