The Philadelphia Citizen recently featured carpenters’ apprentice and Carpenters’ Apprentice Ready Program (CARP) graduate Gina Yiantselis and Layla Bibi of the Eastern Atlantic States Regional Council of Carpenters in an article about efforts to encourage more people to enter the building trades. In particular, the article highlighted CARP’s work in reaching out to people of color and women, two groups that in the past have not had as much access to careers in the trades.
From the Philadelphia Citizen:
CARP represents a unique opportunity for women, non-binary people and people of color to join a male-dominant workforce that earns competitive, family-supporting wages, promises a lifetime of career stability and growth. It’s also an opportunity to capitalize on the post-pandemic building—and job—boom. …
And despite the perception of carpentry being “man’s work,” the more women who enter the industry, the easier it gets to prove they can do the job just as well.
“Obviously there’s going to be challenges, but I think that’s the same for men, women, and non-binary people,” says Yiantselis. “They may be physical or working with a difficult person. There’s going to be hard days, cold days, hot days. Honestly, I have never worked with better people. As long as you show that you try, and you want to be there, that’s all that matters at the end of the day. Most people would rather work with a mediocre carpenter with a great attitude than a great carpenter with a bad attitude.”
