The BCIT Archives recently had a visit from a 1979 graduate of the Women’s Exploratory Apprenticeship Training (WEAT) at Pacific Vocational Institute (PVI) Maple Ridge. Back in 1978, Bridget Trousdell was living in Prince George, had done some work in trades, and was eager to get real job-ready training. She enrolled in the inaugural year of the WEAT program along with 15 other women. After 12 weeks of training the students graduated, embarked on skilled trades careers and went their separate ways.
Archivist Elizabeth Padilla and alumnus Bridget Trousdell look over photos from the WEAT program at PVI.
Thirty years passed, without contact, but then three years ago a classmate found Bridget and two other former students on Facebook. The group reconnected and they’ve been meeting annually to catch up and discuss old times. There were always unanswered questions about what happened to their fellow alumni and the program itself. Bridget’s visit to the Archives was an attempt to answer those questions. What ensued was win-win session. Bridget was able to learn about the fate of the program and see the collection of photographs from the WEAT days. BCIT’s Archives grew richer from a first person account of the early days of trades training for women at PVI and the identification of some of the students in the photos.
The WEAT Program was discontinued in the mid-‘80s, but BCIT’s lengthy history of training women for the trades continues today with the 16 week Trades Discovery for Women. It is not uncommon to see women enrolled in all of the skilled trades programs at BCIT. If you want to learn more check out this CKNW interview with BCIT Chief Instructor Tamara Pongracz and Mike Smyth.
BCIT’s Archives has photographs and documents from our nearly 50 year history, including Pacific Vocational Institute and British Columbia Vocational School. In the last year those images have started to become available online through Digital Collections – which now include Nucleus Year Books (1965-1980) and the Link Student Newspaper (1965-1978). If you want to know more about BCIT’s history, or maybe do a little research on an old friend, visit Elizabeth Padilla, Archivist at the BCIT Archives (SE-14, 308) Monday to Wednesday, 9:00 – 4:00, or check out the ever expanding Digital Collections. And if there are any WEAT alumni or instructors reading this who would like to reconnect, please contact weatweb@shaw.ca
Finding a familiar face.
Bridget Trousdell
Thanks for sending me the link to this. I have been deeply aware of the WEAT program since the 1970’s, and in 1983 I was given permission by the Women’s Program of the BC Government to use some of the slides from their promotional slide show in the Slide/Tape presentation, What Happens to Women in Tradesland, developed as a part of our seminar, The Workplace in Transition – Integrating Women Effectively. We presented that seminar over 40 times across Canada, and 9 times for vocational instructors at BCIT. The WEAT program was a precursor to the Women in Trades and Technology Program that was put on at many BC Community Colleges, and I was the author, along with a wonderful advisory committee that wrote “Orientation to Trades and Technoloogy – A Curriculum Guide and Resource Book with a Special Emphasis on the Needs of Women.” It was published by British Columbia in 1987, and completely revised and updated in 1997, with support from HRDC and WITT National Network. It is still being used all over Canada, including in the Yukon, Northwest Territory and Newfoundland. Along with the Women in Trades Program at Red River College, WEAT was the first and foundational program for women seeking training and employment in trades and technology areas in the 1970s. If Bridget Trousdell wants to contact me, I would be pleased to share some of the photographs with her.
Regards,
Marcia Braundy
Former Coordinator for Kootenay WITT and National Coordinator for WITT National Network
I am doing some research on a student you had (Forestry) during the early 70’s. 1970/71. His name is Peter Belcher. Is there any way I may obtain a photograph of him from an annual or ?? from his tenure there. I am helping our daughter obtain a photograph of him for her memories, something I do not have. He passed away in 2002 in Australia. If you can help, I thank you very much and would put our daughter’s mind at ease. Carla
George Bernard Lowen, the beloved instructor of the WEAT program died in May, 2008. His obituary shows a person who in some ways is very much like the women he taught to be tool users. That work gave him great pleasure, and he was remembered very fondly by all the women I have spoken to who went through the Women’s Exploratory Apprenticeship Training program at BCIT in Haney, British Columbia. He is missed.
Hi Marcia. Thanks for the update about George Loewen. What a champion of a man, and a marvelous teacher. My classmates and I have often wondered what became of him. May he rest in peace.