Congregation’s new ‘Firefly’ software to educate teen girls on fundamentals of electrical work A couple of years after Valeria Lucas graduated from excessive school in 2013, she considered following in her father’s footsteps and took some electric courses at Los Angeles Trade-Technical College in Los Angeles, California.
She was one of the most effective multiple ladies in the instructions of the one — the remaining dozens of students had been all guys.
Despite feeling intimidated at times, Lucas “have become lots extra comfortable just being in an surroundings this is male-dominated.”
Lucas’ father, Alberto Lucas, nonetheless works as an electrician. For several years, he’d been supplying to educate electric work to more youthful humans at his parish, St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church in the Hollywood neighborhood of Los Angeles, California.
He eventually can now, way to a $20,000 supply from Episcopal-affiliated Girls’ Friendly Society California, part of an international corporation within the Anglican Communion. The organization’s furnish application helps neighborhood church buildings and agencies offer personal development programming for young ladies.
St. Stephen’s is the use of the furnish to fund its newly released Firefly software that will educate ladies ages 14 to 17 on the fundamentals of electrical work in an arms-on placing one Saturday a month over the following years.
The software began on Oct. 14, but enrollment continues to be open. Alberto Lucas, a St. Stephen’s parishioner for more than twenty years, is this system’s lead instructor.
Valeria Lucas, who’s a trainer at the church’s Delaney Wright Fine Arts Preschool, is this system’s co-coordinator and the interpreter for her father, whose primary language is Spanish.
“Part of our goal is to offer the women no longer most effective the bodily, operating equipment to lead them to extra snug to work within the discipline, however also simply how to deal with those gear, a way to drill something, a way to experience snug, ultimately transferring up to one of these instructions wherein it is going to be a male-dominated area due to the fact that’s as a minimum where we’re beginning,” Valeria Lucas informed Episcopal News Service.
The Firefly software will cope with distinct subjects every month, consisting of electricity fundamentals, distinct wiring methods, emergency electricity devices, lighting fixtures sorts, protection, and more.
The Rev. Jaime Edwards-Acton, rector of St. Stephen’s, told ENS the Firefly application ambitions to train girls power fundamentals even as they’re young adults, so that they’re knowledgeable and assured sufficient to join a complete-time program and come to be an electrician apprentice after they’re 18, the youngest age to qualify for an apprenticeship in California.
Or if they select not to pursue a profession in electrical work, they’ll own abilities that might gain them in different fields, which include electric engineering.
Even in the event that they determine to pursue a completely unrelated career discipline, finishing the Firefly software provides credentials for university and task applications because of the quantity of arithmetic and discipline electrical work calls for.
“We’re trying to catch those girls at a long time so that when they end excessive school, they’ve stable opportunities, whether or not it’s university or something else,” Edwards-Acton stated. “I suppose the common wage for electricians may be without a doubt appealing for a number of these younger ladies.”
In 2022, the suggested annual pay for electricians in California become $78,140, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. California has the very best employment degree for electricians in the United States. When comparing metropolitan areas in the United States, Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim is second handiest to New York-Newark-New Jersey in employment for electricians.
Edwards-Acton also referred to that demand for electricians is growing in California, specifically in the Hollywood place, bringing up the growth in sun panel installations and the want for electric paintings related to Los Angeles preparing for and website hosting the 2028 Summer Olympics.
IBEW Local Eleven, the more Los Angeles bankruptcy of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers labor union, presently serves as an adviser on sustainability for the metropolis’s Olympics committee.
“We are seeking to create a pipeline so that the girls will gain from our application and then have elsewhere to continue their education if that’s something that they pick to do,” Valeria Lucas stated.
With the cash granted by using the Girls’ Friendly Society California, the Firefly application will also encompass occasional area trips to nearby places to study more about electric paintings in an arms-on setting, which includes the nearby IBEW bankruptcy schooling center in a nearby chamber of trade.
Occasionally, members also will pay attention to visitor speakers who speak approximately the electrical enterprise.
The Firefly software is currently accepting applications. The price to take part is $50 for 2 years, and scholarships are available. St. Stephen’s will offer a safety system. Being a parishioner of St. Stephen’s isn’t required to participate.