Do you remember Rosie the Riveter? It was the iconic WWII era poster featuring a skilled female factory worker, flexing her bicep, with the caption “We Can Do It!”
And do it, they did.
During WWII, more than six million women took wartime jobs in factories.[1] They were an incredibly important part of the war effort, replacing male workers who were shipped overseas to fight for freedom.
And without these skilled and brave women, chances are we may not have won the war, and we most certainly wouldn’t have had the “tools” to do it in the first place.
But, while women in skilled trades may have been viewed as a temporary blip back then, times have changed. And they’ve changed a lot!
Today, there are hundreds of thousands of women working in the skilled trades, and 10.8% of construction workers are women.[2] You see, what was once considered a male only career path is now slowly being embraced by women.
Today, Conversion Media Group will highlight some of the skilled trade programs that women are interested in, and show you how your school can fill its roles with more female students.
But before we show you one of the best ways to boost female enrollment in your trade or career-based school, let’s look at some data.
According to the United States Department of Labor, the women’s participation rate in skilled trades surpassed 300,000 in 2021, and female apprenticeships more than doubled from 2014 to 2022. This year, 9.4% of all apprenticeships are held by women.[3]
This means that if your trade or career-based school is not catering to the female demographic, you’re cutting perhaps 10% of your prospect pool out of the opportunity. Unfortunately, too many schools are doing just this.
So instead of ignoring the female demographic, consider increasing the size of your student prospect pool, by embracing them! In just a second, we’ll show you how.
First, as cited in a recent Forbes Magazine article, there are ten trades that women are seriously considering entering. Now, some of the trades you’ll see below have traditionally been dominated by women, but others have been mostly male dominated. Either way, women are interested.
So, what are the trades women are interested in, and how can your school attract them?
Well, lets start off with the trades that have traditionally been female dominated. Women are still interested in becoming dental hygienists, hair stylists, makeup artists and massage therapists.
And now, the trades women are interested in that have typically been male dominated are…
Construction management, service technicians, landscapers, electricians, carpenters, and HVAC technicians.
Now, if your school offers any of these programs, you may have already seen an uptick in female enrollment. However, like we said earlier, if you’re not catering to this demographic, you may be missing out on a large pool of prospective students.
So…
How can you best market your trade or career-based school to women?
Well, consider partnering with Conversion Media Group. We are a nationwide leader in higher education enrollment initiatives.
We physically speak with (on an actual telephone) thousands of prospective students, many of which are female, who are seriously considering getting into the trades.
We can transfer these phone calls directly to your enrollment department, live, while the interested prospects are on the phone with us.
This means your enrollment team can speak directly with prospective students who are interested in your programs; after we’ve generated, nurtured and warmed them up to the idea of enrolling with you.
Of course, on our end, it’s a bit more complicated than this, but on your end it’s simple…
Partner with Conversion Media Group and we’ll deliver the student leads you need.
Give us a call at 1-800-419-3201, (or click HERE) and we’ll explain all of our various EDU lead-gen programs, our unique student conversion strategies, and we’ll show you how we can deliver live transfer leads, directly into the phones of your enrollment reps.
Here’s to your enrollment success!
[1] Research Starters: Women in World War II | The National WWII Museum | New Orleans (nationalww2museum.org)
[2] Women in Construction: The State of the Industry in 2024 | BigRentz
[3] Why More Women Should Consider A Job In The Skilled Trades (forbes.com)