ABC-SEMI Issue 2 2019

Southeast Michigan Contractors  Issue 2 2019 5 For the past year, ABC SEMI has partnered with a Detroit-based nonprofit organization that teaches women how to weld and find employment in the welding industry. Although Women Who Weld is based in Detroit, since 2018 the nonprofit organization has been holding its welding training programs at ABC SEMI’s welding facility in Madison Heights, Michigan. “We are incredibly grateful for the support of ABC SEMI—the facility is great and everyone is very welcoming to us and the participants in our programs,” said Farr. ABC SEMI is proud to support Women Who Weld and their mission to provide skills that will help people jumpstart their professional careers. The program goes hand in hand with ABC SEMI’s mission to provide a skilled workforce to the construction industry, while providing classroom instruction and state-of-the- art hands-on training. Women Who Weld was founded by Samantha Farr in 2014. Farr was pursuing her Master’s at the Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning at the University of Michigan in 2013 when she asked the instructor of the fabrication lab to teach her how to weld. Noticing she was the only woman in the shop, Farr decided to develop a program to train other women how to weld. Women Who Weld offers three training models, including a 6-Week Intensive Welding Training Program that is free-of-charge for unemployed and underemployed women; Week-Long Intensive Welding Training Classes; and Single-Day Introductory Workshops. Women Who Weld’s intensive training programs are designed to prepare participants for full-time jobs or apprenticeships in the welding industry. To date, Women Who Weld has a 100% program completion rate and 100% program to employment rate, and has trained hundreds of women through a combination of its three training models.