Minority & Small Business Week
September 23, 2009
Page A7
Placing Women in Good Paying Jobs
Group offers
pre-apprentice
training
by J ake T homas
T he P ortland O bserver
When Alexandra Brucculeri re
turned from the Peace Corp all she
could find was low-paying nanny
work. So she decided to pursue a
course few women might con
sider: carpentry.
Although Brucculeri chose an
unconventional vocation, she had
help.
People typically associate blue-
collar construction jobs with salty
Carhartt-clad men. However, Or
egon Tradeswomen, Inc. has been
working since 1989 to change that
perception by helping women
break into well-paying trades.
It offers a pre-apprentice train
ing program that teaches women
everything from how to swing a
hammer to basic work site eti
quette.
After completing their stints as
trainees, Oregon Tradeswomen
helps place them in an apprentice
ship program that puts them on
the fast track to landing good-pay
ing blue-collar jobs as mechanics,
plumbers, electricians, and other
vocations.
“It’s accessible,” said Brucculeri
of why she signed up with the pro
gram.
On a soggy morning in northeast
Portland, women clad in work
boots and hard hats lug long
wooden boards across the saw
dust-covered floor. The screech of
electric drills and the rhythm of
ham m ers pounding nails into
wood saturate the air as trainees
with Oregon Tradeswomen Inc.
renovate a building for JOIN, a
non-profit organization that advo
cates for the homeless.
photo by J ake T homas /T he P ortland O bserver
Amy James-Neel (from left), an instructor with Oregon Tradeswomen, Inc., goes over a blueprint with two trainees, Carol
Caplinger and Alexandra Brucculeri.
These are living wage
jobs. This about
economic justice. VZcîo"“ ""'
Two women erect a metal frame
for a wall while Amy James-Neel,
an instructor, looks over their
shoulders to make sure it’s plumb,
James-Neel explains that train-
ing women for these jobs can be
a challenge.
Young girls aren't encouraged to
learn how to use tools, said James-
Neel, who added that she has had
to prove herself on job sites while
working as a carpenter. But as
she’s watched her trainees get
good jobs as plumbers and elec
tricians, she realized it’s worth it.
“These are living wage jobs,”
she said. “This about economic
justice.”
A ccording to the Bureau of
L abor S ta tistic s, the m edian
wage for a childcare worker (a
jo b tra d itio n a lly fille d w ith
women) is $9.12 and hour. An
electrician or carpenter can ex
pect to make between $18 and
$22 an hour. H ow ever, labor
bureau studies still show that
men dominate these industries.
But that's not stopping Melissa
Jackson, who used to work in
continued
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