Job call goes out to women

By Dan Nakaso
Advertiser Staff Writer

Jamie Legsay is nearly two years into her apprenticeship with Maui Electric Co., where she's learning to network and troubleshoot computers and printers.

"We put them up at shopping centers and Laundromats, anywhere that women go," said Nanette Atchazo, program assistant for the Women In Technology Project for the Maui Economic Development Board. "We want to let women know that there's something else available for them."

The Maui Economic Development Board is one of 11 organizations around the nation — and the only one in Hawai'i — to be awarded a federal grant from the Department of Labor's women's bureau to increase the number of women in apprentice programs.

The Women In Technology Project is using the one-year, $75,000 grant to work with 10 unions and employers throughout the Islands.

On O'ahu, the Plumbers & Fitters Training Center in Pearl City is hoping to find 30 qualified women candidates for plumbing, refrigeration and air conditioning and fire sprinkler fitter apprenticeships by Friday.

It's just part of a bigger effort to improve Hawai'i's 3 percent rate for women who are in apprentice programs traditionally dominated by men. And so far it's working.

The groups that the Maui Economic Development Board have worked with so far have had a female application rate of no less than 15 percent. Some have had as many as half of their applications from women.

Organizations that run apprentice programs have an incentive to recruit women because they're under state and federal rules requiring affirmative action plans and policies.

Christine Andrews, program consultant with the Maui group's Women In Technology project, says it just makes sense to widen the pool of candidates.

"When you are only getting 50 percent of your potential labor force, you are limiting your effort," she said. "In a competitive environment, you can't limit yourself."

For women applicants, an apprenticeship can mean careers, benefits and jobs that start at an average pay of $11 an hour. By the time they become journeymen in two to five years, their salaries can triple to more than $30 an hour.

Some of the apprentice programs call for technical minds that are good at math. Others require physical strength.

So the Maui Economic Development Board sometimes posts its notices in "places where women are physically fit — canoe clubs, martial arts centers, any place where you would find athletic women," Andrews said.

Jamie Legsay heard about her apprentice program with Maui Electric Co. through a counselor at Maui Community College, where she was studying electronic and engineering technology.

"Basically I needed a job," said Legsay, 25.

She's nearly two years into her apprenticeship learning to network and troubleshoot computers and printers. Out of six people on her team, Legsay is the only woman and the least experienced.

It's no problem for Legsay.

"They're really nice," she said. "They treat me, well, just like I'm one of the guys."

Legsay wasn't intimidated about being the only woman because she'd seen her mother go through the same thing. Candance Legsay, 52, has been climbing up and down telephone polls and tugging on cables for the past 28 years as a phone company troubleshooter.

"She was a big role model for me," Legsay said.

And now Legsay is trying to be a role model for others.

She tells her female friends that they can be successful apprentices, too. And she participated in a workshop for Hawaiian girls in grades 6 through 8 in which she showed them how to take apart and rebuild a personal computer.

"They were afraid they would break some parts," Legsay said. "I told them, 'Don't worry about it. It's not as fragile as you think.' "

Basically, Legsay said, "if you put your mind to it, you can do anything."

For more information about the plumber, refrigeration and air conditioning and fire sprinkler fitter apprentice program on O'ahu, contact the Plumbers & Fitters Training Center at 456-0585. For programs on other islands, contact the Maui Economic Development Board at (808) 875-2388.

Reach Dan Nakaso at dnakaso@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8085.