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Women in Apprenticeships Victoria Electrical Program

Project overview

October 2021

The Women in Apprenticeships Victoria Electrical (WAVE) Project is an initiative funded by Apprenticeships Victoria, and delivered by The Centre for U.

The project aims to increase the number of women entering the electrical trade and support them as they make the transition from their electrical pre-apprenticeship to full time employment as an apprentice in the electrical industry.

The WAVE project proposes to attract, recruit and retain women in electrical apprenticeships through the following actions:

Attract 100 women to a Try a Trade Day -Women in Trades, information event.

Recruit 30 women to well supported pre apprenticeship programs to develop a community of practice to transition to electrical apprenticeships.

Retain and support 30 women in electrical apprenticeships through the initial 12 months via an innovative Mentoring App. The specifically developed App will connect apprentices and mentors and will be a communications tool used in the mentoring program, connecting people and providing insights for project evaluation.

The WAVE project is proposed to be delivered through three phases with project partners.

Project Partners

Project partners have selected to deliver elements of the project in their in specific field of expertise:

Holmesglen Futuretech have been delivering electrical pre apprenticeship programs for over 20 years and are well regarded in industry for apprenticeship training. They are also co located in the same facility as The Centre for U.

The Trades Hall Council’s Women Onsite and Jobs and Pathway projects have developed support programs specifically developed for women in construction sites. The learnings from previous activities will be of benefit and compliment the WAVE project. This partnership also provides funding for essential safety and testing equipment, removing a of significant barrier and allows the project to provide the highest standard in equipment.

Australian Women in Solar Energy (AWISE), ETU Women’s Group and Holmesglen Apprenticeship Support Centre (ASC) participating in the mentoring program will be of great benefit to the women apprentices as they are all very experienced in industry, they have experienced the challenges from being women apprentices in male dominated trades.

Project Phases

Attract phase

  • An information event delivered by project partners Victorian Trades Hall Council’s- Job Ready Pathways Project. The aim is to have 100 women interested in potentially pursuing a career in the electrical industry attend.

Recruit phase

  • A women’s only pre apprenticeship program will be delivered by project partners- Holmesglen Futuretech

Retain phase

  • Workshops to support Safe and Respectful workplaces will be delivered by project partners Victorian Trades Hall Council’s- Women Onsite Project
  • Strategies such as training employers to foster respectful workplaces, and mentoring programs to provide peer to peer support through apprenticeship transition will be delivered by The Centre for U.

Through a governance structure that includes all partners, The Centre for U will project manage to ensure safety of participants and objectives are achieved.

The Centre for U is project lead to manage project partners, source apprenticeships, work to ensure the successful transition to apprenticeships, manage the development and implementation of a mentoring App and carry out project the evaluation.

The Mentoring App

The Project will use the KommunityLabs Engine (KLE) to enable rapid yet controlled communities of practice around industry expertise and verticals. It is built around the premise that trusted peer-to-peer learning makes up nearly 80% of total knowledge and support with 20% being from formal learning institutions. Informal networks using free comms tools and social media groups have great value in access but are often advertising based and on-sell data and content.

The App will be an environment holding resources, forums, chats around our specific area of interest and record the mentor/mentee meetings. Any discussion, post or interaction belongs to the community and individual members and is searchable ongoing even when parties leave. The “Community of Practice” realises that the value gained by the group is both what trusted parties “put in” but the ease and relevant of what is “learned and taken out” from all.

If you would like more information, please contact Jacinta on 1800 270 875.

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