Wendy the Welder to the Rescue
Welding camps are doing their part to fill the skills gap and get girls into STEM professions By Annik Babinski, assistant editor at The Welding Journal. Reprinted with permission: The Welding Journal. You’ve heard the alarm bells sounding. Industry faces a skills gap and manufacturers are scrambling to fill trade and technical colleges with young welders in an effort to maintain future production demands. Now, more than ever, industry is realizing it may have been a mistake to let half of the workable population believe welding and manufacturing jobs are not for them. Women are increasingly being seen as a part of the solution to the skills gap problem. However, the industry has to undo the perception that welding is men’s work, and that entering the field as a woman means fighting uphill to gain traction in a boys’ club. Educators and business owners across the country are leading the way in this effort by hosting welding summer camps for girls. The Welding Journal spoke to some of these innovators and came away inspired about what industry and educational partners are coming together to achieve for the next generation. GirlTech and Girls in the Shop, Oshkosh, Wis. Jessie Lloyd is passionate about showing girls they have a place in the fabrication and manufacturing industries. As a welding instructor at Fox Valley Technical College, Oshkosh, Wis., she volunteered with the school’s GirlTech summer camp for two years before proposing an additional summer camp program for high school girls in the 2015 season: Girls in the Shop. “A lot of the girls that I meet are really hung up on the reservations they have about doing something in the shop. They really believe the shop is something for boys…and they feel like they don’t belong.” Fox Valley Technical College attempts to undo these stereotypes early by inviting girls into its science, fabrication, and welding labs for its summer camps. GirlTech accommodates 60 girls in a week-long camp. The middle schoolers spend one day in the welding lab, and also learn other hands-on applications of the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields. “Girls I’ve had in class quickly overcome reservations about whether this is something they should be doing because they realize how much they enjoy doing it…It’s important to overcome stereotypes if we are going to get them involved,” said Lloyd. The 2015 GirlTech welding project was a jewelry tree. Lloyd showed the girls how she designed the tree in AutoCAD, and then brought the campers into the welding laboratory where they welded the pieces together and embellished them with swirls using the grinder.
Girls in the Shop aims to educate campers about the career options they have, and set them up for a two-year technical diploma in welding. This year’s group built an elaborate patio table. In order to bend and scroll the table legs, the girls learned to use a variety of equipment and materials. The tabletop was cut with a laser, and waterjet machine was also used — see lead photo.
Reflecting on the camps, Lloyd said, “So many opportunities exist for students doing welding (fabrication, programming robotics, laser, welding engineering), it’s a neat opportunity for girls coming in to see how vast this field is.”
Girls Can Camp, Irvington, Ala.
Five years ago, Dawn Taylor coordinated a construction camp program for girls in Mobile County, Ala. Taylor, who worked for Alabama Power, set up a partnership with the Mobile County Public School System. Bryant Career Technical Center, Irvington, Ala., hosts 20 eighth- and ninth-grade girls for one week each summer as they learn the ins and outs of carpentry, welding, pipefitting, and more.
“Girls Can Camp wants to give them an option in a different career pathway. We want to open doors and help girls realize, ‘I can do this,’” said Thomas Reed, Bryant Career Technical Center principal.
In 2016, Girls Can Camp began awarding an annual $500 scholarship to a student enrolled in the Mobile County Public School System who attended camp and successfully completed two semesters of career and technical courses with no disciplinary issues. The camp also brings past campers back to serve as junior counselors. The goal is to reinforce the girls’ interest in the skilled trades, and it seems to be working.
“Of fourteen campers from the previous year, ten expressed interest in being counselors for 2015,” reported Stacy Simmons, employee development coordinator, Alabama Power. Simmons took over for Taylor when she retired, and has been camp director for Girls Can Camp since 2014.
The camp manages to stay free for campers by bringing together industry partners to help organize camp activities and offer financial sponsorship. “A skilled labor pool is important for economic growth in our state. This camp is a great way to introduce young girls to careers in the construction trades and help them understand the vast career opportunities available to them in these fields,” Simmons said.
But it’s not just about the workforce. It’s about the individual, too. “The camp helps the girls gain self esteem. It’s amazing how some of these young women leave camp with a newfound confidence in themselves after participating in the week’s activities. It’s important for the girls to know that they can do anything they want to do.”
Mentoring a Girl in Construction (MAGIC) Camp, Inc., Various Locations, Georgia
Renee Conner has been a construction business owner for 20 years, and she rarely saw another woman in the field, save for a rare backhoe driver. In 2006, Conner attended a National Association of Women in Construction (NAWC) convention and her friend Diane Quimby proposed starting a camp for girls to introduce them to the construction trades and encourage them to fill the shoes of the retiring generation. In 2007, MAGIC Camp became a reality.
Over the years, Conner has seen eight of her campers come back three years in a row, and two past campers are currently enrolled in the welding program at Bartow College and Career Academy, Cartersville, Ga. In 2015, Conner held four weeks of free camp — one week each in Macon, Cartersville, Waynesboro, and Lawrenceville, Ga. — and she reached 100 young women between the ages of 14 and 20 in that time.
Conner places a special emphasis on the dollars and cents of a trade career as a motivator for her campers. One of Conner’s guest speakers was a member of the Local Steamfitters and Pipefitters Union, who brought her pay stub to show the campers what kind of money they can make. Another guest, Kayla Evans, who works for Zachry, an engineering, construction, and maintenance company, told campers how she went from making $13/h on a cleanup crew to making $25/h today.
Depending on the needs of the community, MAGIC Camp focuses on welding, carpentry, electrical, heavy equipment, and plumbing, but Conner said the girls love to weld the most.
On welding day, campers learn to use gas metal arc welding (GMAW), and they make various projects: yard art using washers, bolts, and rebar; MAGIC cats with whiskers and eyes; napkin holders; salt and pepper shakers; and more.
Mind Over Metal, Various Locations, Canada
The Canadian Welding Association Foundation (CWAF) has taken concrete steps to help close the industry skills gap with the debut of its Mind Over Metal welding camps. In an effort to engage and expose youth to welding, the CWAF hosted 11 free camps across Canada for youth aged 12–15 over summer 2015. The average camp had 20 participants, and two of the camps were dedicated to all-female participants. The camps also served at-risk youth who were handpicked to participate by local school boards, social service agencies, and other community groups.
“Our camps are designed to promote self-esteem, teamwork, and friendship, while learning about welding and getting hands-on experience. We simply want to ensure they know that welding is a career path available to them as they begin to make choices as they enter high school,” said CWA Foundation Executive Director Deborah Mates.
Mary Clarke, executive director and program coordinator of Educational Science, Technology, Engineering, Exploration and Mentoring (ESTEEM) programs for women and girls, has hosted three Mind Over Metal camps for women in Newfoundland and Laborador. On the first day, campers had a chance to try a virtual welding machine, and, according to Mates, it was a hit. For the rest of the week, they practiced their welding on projects ranging from cow bells to campfire sticks, from Halloween bats to Christmas sled planters.
Mates elaborated on the impact of the program: “Without question, the Mind over Metal Camps are changing lives for these young participants. The opportunity to try something they may not have ever imagined has meant that over 90% of participants have expressed an interest in pursuing welding in high school and beyond, and making a career for themselves. We witnessed students switching schools in order to take welding, changing their program selections to welding going into high school, and speaking to their guidance teachers about postsecondary and apprenticeship opportunities.”
Creating Your Own Welding Camp for Girls
Whether you are a business owner, an educator, or a welding professional, girls’ commitment to the field impacts you, if only because it ensures the continuation of this industry when you retire. The beauty of welding summer camps is they introduce welding as a career and allow girls a chance to set up their education for a life in the field.
Although each camp has its own characteristics, a few key components apply across the board.
1) Local Partnerships. Whether or not the camp is run by a public organization or a private company, partnerships between these two groups is vital. It exposes students to the working world, and it introduces employers to future employees. Partnerships also help keep the camps free or affordable.
2) Keep Kids in School. Partnerships with schools and social organizatons can help identify at-risk students who might benefit most from the hands-on programming camps offer. Helping students at risk of dropping out is a great way to empower the next generation and keep kids in school by showing them there is a career they can enjoy and excel in.
3) Incentives for Campers. If campers can attend camp for free, earn high school or college credit for attending, return the next summer in a leadership role, or be in the running for a scholarship, recruitment will be easy, and campers will return to give back.
4) Building Pathways. Camps that show campers how to continue on the path to a career in construction, by speaking about college programs and showing campers how to continue their training, will have excellent graduate conversion rates into the profession. 
