Empowering Women in Tech: The YWCA Uplift Program

There's a great gender imbalance at those roles that tend to be high-tech, high-paying, rather secure employment opportunities. The Uplift program, like YWCA of Hamilton received the grant to roll the program out. There are 6 YWCAs involved. My home base, YWCA of Hamilton, we have 2 programs in-house, but my focus is specifically, my personal focus is specifically coordinating the advanced manufacturing program. Let me talk about the ecosystem because the program has a vision. It's a fairly broad vision. I like to describe the Uplift Program as having 3 pillars of support. There's a skill development component delivered by a post-secondary training institution. One of the barriers for women too is managing their career, their families, and paying for post-secondary career development isn't always easy to attain. So, the grant covers all the training costs. And as you know, post-secondary can be quite costly. So, the program is expensive to run, but it gives women an opportunity that many of them would never otherwise have. So, there's the skill training component by post-secondary. Our training partner with the advanced manufacturing is McMaster University. MMRI specifically delivers the skills training and Russia University College. They are Canada's only women's-only college, and they're affiliated with Western University. They deliver a leadership training.