Photos provided by Suzanne Moyer/Conestoga College
Conestoga College has acquired over a million dollars in funding from the government of Ontario for the college’s Women in Skilled Trades (WIST) program.
The college was one of 25 programs province-wide to receive funding through the Women’s Economic Security Program, an Ontario government initiative created with the purpose of helping provide women with career training opportunities and ensuring a path to a job in a handful of industries.
The program is a general carpentry pre-apprenticeship, which allows the women to receive a certificate, a level one apprenticeship, as well as the skills needed to work in the field.
Kristin Deskau, a Journeyman Interior Systems Mechanic who graduated from the college’s WIST program in 2019, says the program helped her flip the script in her life.
“There were many [people] who thought that I would not be able to make the switch, especially as I was approaching 40… Well, I proved them wrong,” Deskau said.
The program is entirely government funded and tuition-free, allowing for women from all walks of life to gain the essential skills they need to make a difference in the industry.
The college will receive the funding over a three-year period, allowing it to run the WIST program until 2027.
Conestoga College’s Dean of Trades and Apprenticeship, Suzanne Moyer, says this will also give the program more flexibility in the years to come.
“We will run a condensed version of the program this upcoming January,” Moyer explained.
“That accelerated program will be followed up by a couple two-semester programs starting in September 2025 and September 2026… this gives us the opportunity to provide three years of programming, which is more than we had anticipated, for those looking to make that push into the trades,” Moyer said.
The WIST program at Conestoga has run for over two decades, and is now based out of Conestoga’s new Reuter Drive Campus in Cambridge.
Conestoga College’s Liaison officer of Trades and Apprenticeship, Nadine McPhee, stated that the program has been “worth its weight in gold” for women in the community, and hopes it will continue to do so.
“I have seen first hand the important, impactful and long-term change made in the lives of the women who come through the program and look forward to seeing the same in the women who come through in the future,” McPhee said.
“It is Conestoga’s hope that, like all of our students, the women who participate in this program will be successful in realizing their fullest potential and graduate from the program as indivdiduals who make meaningful contributions to our local and global community,” McPhee said.
