A woman’s place is in the kitchen – fixing the pipes, of course. Or maybe doing plumbing repairs in the bathroom, or perhaps, fixing a client’s HVAC unit.
Emily Griffith Technical College in downtown Denver has been educating people for more than 100 years. Recently, it created a special focus to attract female students to study careers in the trades.
These female students were in the spotlight on May 9, when the Emily Griffith Foundation hosted an inaugural event at ReelWorks Denver called A Celebration of Women in Trades. It was a sellout with 256 attendees, and proved that more women are entering the fields that men have historically dominated.
“It was incredible,” said Robin Chalecki, president of the Emily Griffith Foundation. “We have not done a fundraiser lunch for a couple of years, since COVID. I wanted to host an event that really highlighted our students in the best way.”
Chalecki credits Emily Griffith students for their initiative and willingness to invest in themselves and their futures.
“Our students are so incredible, so entrepreneurial in spirit, investing in themselves to make their lives better,” she said. “It’s students that know the path they are taking.”
Emily Griffith has an 82% completion rate for its students, an 85% placement rate and a 99% success rate when it comes to students earning their licenses. More than 400 employers have hired Emily Griffith students.
Sarah Flores graduated from Emily Griffith last year with a certificate in HVAC while also working full-time as a service technician for Timberline Mechanical Systems in Boulder, where she’s worked for four years.
Flores served in the Marines and earned a bachelor’s degree but decided against going into teaching because of a lack of jobs.
Her father was a second-generation plumber.
“I thought I’d go back to what I knew, which is plumbing,” Flores said. “Trades will always be a high-demand, steady job. I could get hired just about anywhere. There’s a high demand for my skill set, particularly since I have both a plumbing and HVAC background.”
In the long view, Flores would like to get a managerial job or go into engineering.
Catrina Peralta is studying CAD-BIM, which stands for computer aided drafting and building information modeling, at Emily Griffith and will finish her studies in April next year.
As the fourth child in a family of nine kids, she’s been working since she was 12 and has honed good work habits.
“I had to work really young to help out the family,” said Peralta, who is 36.
She describes computer programming as “all these different tools to build a building — anything from ground up, designing windows, doors, fixtures, where electricity is run.”
Peralta has a job, and is taking courses 10 hours a week in person and the rest online.
“That’s pretty much why I chose Emily Griffith. They’re flexible,” Peralta said.
She’s also looking into internships through Emily Griffith. Peralta hopes to be in a management position by age 40 “and to learn the field the best I can.”
The May 9 event included a panel of three women who work in trades — one from the automotive repair program, another from the welding program and the third is an apprenticeship instructor at Emily Griffith. They discussed why they entered these mostly-male fields.
“Our panelists were just fabulous,” Chalecki said. “They spoke about their journeys, why they came into nontraditional trades, why women should come into these fields — and the audience reacted positively to this.”
The event also included demo stations where attendees could learn more about industries that Emily Griffith students are studying, and students showed off what they learned from their classes.
Demo stations included water quality management, welding, and health sciences programs. One woman demonstrated how HVAC works. Auto repair students had an auto body repair simulator, and also demonstrated how to paint cars.
“We (still) have a ways to go get more women” in these fields, Chalecki said, adding that getting the message out that they have support is important.
But “more people in general are understanding the value of a trades education,” Chalecki said. “That will mean that more women will arrive as well.”