nance workforce across Canada. “If we were to
attract and hire just 1 per cent of these wom-
en, this would mean 62,000 new skilled work-
ers and address 25 per cent of the forecasted
workforce shortage,” says Women Building Fu-
tures President and CEO, Kathy Kimpton. “Sim-
ply put, women are Canada’s largest untapped
labour resource.”
One of the most interesting things about pro-
filing Canada’s most successful business and
organizations is how many of them have start-
ed out in a basement, or with only a handful
of people and not a lot of resources, but a ton
of heart.
Women Building Futures (WBF) is no
exception. Now a bonifide leader in preparing
women for economically prosperous careers
in industries where women have historically
been under-represented, an organization that
has helped thousands of women find a place in
the workforce—WBF started as a small group
of women, social workers mostly, in an empty
basement in downtown Edmonton in 1998.
HELPING WOMEN
ENTER THE TRADES
“This group was looking for ways to help wom-
en out of poverty,” says Kimpton. “Many of the
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