n Industry Champions
How one apprentice is inspiring younger females to a career in the skilled trades By Leah Den Hartogh A career in the skilled trades isn’t for the faint of heart; it’s tough and you have to have a bit of thick skin. Despite this fact, after only spending one week shadowing her father, Jess Bannister was hooked on the skilled trades. “I found it so interesting and exciting. Everyday was like, where are we going next?” Now, she finds herself in her second Bannister has come year of her apprenticeship at her family a long way since com-pany, Cam Cool Refrigeration Inc, her first day on the jobsite and now where she also is the operations manager. After leaving university, she started her things feel so much career as an executive assistant in the finan- more natural for her. cial sector where she worked for around 10 years. “When I was choosing a career, it never occurred to any one of us, not myself, nor my family, that I could do what my dad does. But my brother automatically went into it. Even when I started working with the family business, I automatically went into the office,” shared Bannister. “I feel like if I had maybe seen another woman out there doing what my dad was doing, it may have been a consideration. But I had no examples. I had no idea girls could even be what my dad did.”
Representation matters
Fixing a piece of equipment that was broken and feeling the client’s sense of relief is her favourite part of her job. Although, she admits every success is just so exciting.
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Plumbing & HVAC – March 2022
Through her social media brand, HVAC Jess, Bannister strives to inspire more females to keep an open mind about a career in the trades. It isn’t for the faint of heart and might not be the right career move for everyone, said Bannister. “It’s tough and you got to have a bit of a thick skin. Physically you get dirty and it’s a hard job. It’s physically demanding, and you’ve got to be willing to do things like sometimes crawling on a dirty floor under a track and you just got to do it because that’s part of the job.” Her Instagram account reaches over 10,000 followers, where she documents the day-to-day life of an HVAC apprentice in Canada. www.plumbingandhvac.ca
