2. NON-TRADITIONAL CAREERS
•The U.S. Department of Labor defines a non-traditional
career for women as one in which 25% or less of those
employed in the field are women (Nontraditional
Occupations forWomen. U.S. Department of Labor,
Women's Bureau).
3.
4. CHALLENGING THESE MYTHS
• Myth: Certain jobs are "men's work" and other jobs are "women's work."
• Fact: Men and women often have preconceived notions of what is women's
work and what is men's work. Few jobs have requirements that effectively
limit employment to only men or women
• Myth: Non-traditional jobs for women always require heavy lifting
• Fact: Some do. Many don't. Many companies/employees overcome
obstacles.
• Myth: Women won't like trade work.
• Fact: Many women enjoy working with their hands and working
outdoors.
5. WE KNOW…
•Women are underrepresented in occupations across many
occupational groups including those in the construction trades and STEM
(Science,Technology, Engineering and Math) fields.
• Non-traditional occupations for women offer higher entry level
wages and higher pay as one advances in her career.
• Many companies welcome diversity and want to hire women.
• Cabarrus companies have positions open and are seeking creative
solutions.
6. THE CHALLENGE
• Industry needs to fill job openings with dependable, skilled workers.
• Many women are in part time and/or low paying jobs with no benefits or
opportunity for career advancement.
• How do we match industry opportunities to women who want a better
career option?
7. GIVE BACK GRANT
• Applied and Awarded Creative Economic Development Consulting’s 2015 Give Back
Grant
• Help create a marketing campaign
• Resource partners came together:
• Schools
• Community College
• Workforce Development
• Local Government
• Economic Development
8. THE PLANNING
• Created a Survey
• Industry
• Resource Partners
• Students (High School & College)
• Teachers/Counselors
• Community
9. WHAT WE LEARNED
• WhyWomen Do Not Consider Non-Traditional Careers?
• Lack of Awareness
• Lack of Exposure
• Knowledge of Career Pathway
• Perceptions
10. MOST INFLUENTIAL IN
CAREER DECISIONS?
• Work Experience
• Parents/Family/Teachers (sphere of influence)
• Media
11. WHAT INFORMATION IS NEEDED?
• Educational Pathways & Institutions
• Skillsets Required
• Potential Earnings
• Other Important Items Mentioned:
• AdvancementOpportunities
• Benefits
• Life Style Balance - Flexibility
• Familiarity of Local Companies –WhoWelcomesWomen?
#1 US Mfg. faces 2M worker shortfall over the next decade. 6 out of 10 positions are currently unfilled due to Mfg. skills gap.
#2 Women totaled 47% of labor force in 2017, only 29% in Mfg.
With these factors in mind we began to look at our challenge… (next slide…the challenge)
#2 May be working multiple jobs in retail or service industry at minimum wage. Consider the ‘under-employed’ as well as the un-employed’.
#3 How do we get the word out?
Connect the two?
Open the minds of women to explore ALL of their options?
We applied to Creative EDC to ask for assistance in addressing the challenge. (Give Back Grant Next)
#1 Awarded up to $25,000 in consulting services.
#2 Crystal and her team were wonderful to work with throughout the process. They helped us to create an initial plan to capture and analyze feedback from the community and then they guided us in the next steps to creating a marketing campaign.
ED knows….we need all of our partners insight, resources and connections to bring about change. (Next…We started to plan…)
#1 We decided to create a survey
To gain feedback from women of all ages at different stages in life to find out what information was needed to select a career path….who do they look to for advice and ideas about their options?
#2 So with the help of Creative EDC and our Resource Partners/Schools we surveyed…
# 1 So here is what we learned from the results…
#2 We asked questions to understand why women do not consider NTC?
Lack of awareness of non-traditional career options
Lack of exposure (it’s important to know someone, hear a career story or see it first hand)
Lack of knowledge of the educational pathway or an apprenticeship to enter the field
Perceptions of physical difficulty of the work or concepts of what is women’s vs. men’s work
(Which is one of the myths)
We asked questions to understand who or what is most influential in career decisions
#1 Work Experience…What does that tell us in ED? We have to bridge the gap between our industries and our schools and colleges for internships, externships, tours (virtual or in-person), guest speakers, etc.
#2 We need to challenge others and ourselves to start a conversation with those considering their options or are in low paying or multiple part-time jobs
#3 Share success stories of women working in NTC
We asked questions to understand what information is needed to choose a career path?
TOP 3
-Education requirements & institutions offering training
-Skills needed to be successful in landing the job and keeping it
-Potential Earnings (Entry & Advanced)
OTHER Notable Info Needed:
-Advancement Opportunities
Tuition assistance in furthering education
Is the company going to invest and plan so they can reach their fullest potential
-Benefits
Whole new meaning to young folks….culture shift…not just health, time off and retirement anymore…think out side of the box
-Lifestyle Balance - Flexibility of work schedule
-Who’s in the community? What do they manufacturer or services they provide?
Who Welcomes Women?
Now that we had insight from the survey, Creative ED Consulting and resource partners came back together to create an awareness campaign.
We decided to choose a few of our industry clusters in Cabarrus
Important that industry representatives were selected and involved with our planning from that point forward
We knew that we need to create a website to provide the information that was identified in the survey. A tool that women could utilize to access all of the information that they told us was is important when choosing a career path.
We addressed:
Skills, Traits, Types of Careers, Potential Earnings - Links to career exploration and assessment tools
What level of education is needed, and where to get plugged in.
Links to high school CTE, Community College, Fast Track Programs, Certificates, Apprenticeships & 4 yr. degrees (Entry level to Advancement)
Women are Welcome – News, articles
we feature links on success stories within our industries
(Corning, Wayne Brothers)
Who are our Local Companies - List of industries & description of products they
make - hyperlinked
To Drive Traffic to our Website we Created Career Cards
Our Partners contributed financially to allow us to print and distribute 10,0000 cards
High Schools
Community College locations
NC Works Career Center
Public Libraries
Health Clinic
Municipalities (public applys for jobs at computer stations)
Loraine Zimmerman represents our Manufacturing sector. She is Going Bold as a Machinist/Shipper at Ketchie, Inc. You can see, she proudly stands beside of her PINK tool box. Ketchie is also a Women – Owned Business in Cabarrus
Let me introduce you to our Go Bold lady in the Automotive line of work. Megan Horn, is an Industrial Engineer at Hendrick Motorsports & can be seen moving around the manufacturing floor where parts are being made and motors are being built.
Wayne Brothers Construction encourages women to Go Bold! Terrie Simone is a Project Engineer who wears her hard hat well on large industrial projects.
Jessica Russell represents Logistics in Cabarrus. As a selector at Gordon Food Service she can operate a forklift like no man’s business!
What are our Next Steps in our Awareness Campaign?
Website Improvements:
add links to news articles
add companies that express they want to welcome women to job opportunities
Consider adding sectors, career paths, and feature working women
Add success videos of women sharing their experience of working in a non-traditional career.
Social Media Campaign:
Blog on the topic
Continue to target women of all ages by using demographic tools
Leverage the social presence of our Resource Partners and Industries who are already involved to help us go viral (we can’t do it by ourselves)
Offer gift card to ‘like’ our page. Later a challenge for videos.
Community Engagement:
Opportunities to speak creating awareness and familiarity of our website as a tool
Again, Leverage Resource Partner’s ability to promote awareness through their interaction with ladies
Discussing a ladies Ted Talk event with a Go Bold Job Fair in High Schools
How can you CREATE AWARENESS?
INFLUENCE others to tell their story
WHO can you encourage to GO BOLD???? (Mentor)
Something similar in your Community? We would be glad to share or
Call on Creative ED Consulting to assist you.
Are you already encouraging women in your community to consider NTC, if so share.
Ideas that have worked?
Questions about our program?