Women in Construction – Aika Rasmussen
Getting one’s first job is always a challenge. Getting one’s first apprenticeship is even more challenging. PPMCC recognizes that it is incumbent upon each of us to support apprentices at every level and not just at the highest level of one’s apprenticeship. PPMCC’s belief continues to be one of investing in its people and giving each person the opportunity to develop under a seasoned mentor. In the environment of Marine Civil Construction, the opportunities for apprenticeships are limited to a small number of trades. However, this does not mean only hiring apprentices for these trades.
An example of putting our Philosophy of training people to action was in hiring Aika Rasmussen. Aika had recently completed a Pre-Apprenticeship program in Heavy Duty Mechanics (HDM) through one of the local colleges. Upon graduation, it was now up to her to find a company that was hiring, and further, hire her as an apprentice. While PPMCC did not have an HDM trade, it did however support Industrial Mechanical (Millwright) work. This work within PPMCC operations is quite limited in scope and only covers off what a first and second level apprentice would work at. After a year with PPMCC Aika has moved on to another employer to further her training where a more in-depth scope of the trade is practiced in the workplace. We will miss Aika but will always be proud that our company provided the start for her apprenticeship journey and understand that the best journey for an apprentice is to work in a multitude of settings, learning the trade from various journey-persons in a variety of industrial settings. Our belief continues – we know we can not offer the full scope of trade in all trade areas; however, we know that we can provide that first apprenticeship opportunity to give the apprentice the opportunity to begin. We can all play a key role in supporting our youth in trades as these great people will become our journey people of tomorrow.