Equal opportunities: Students, women in trades advocate for more career and technical education

Argo Community High School sophomore Luciana Deir wants to go into construction after she graduates. Her classmate, Angelica Turza, wants to work in advertising and graphic design.

To get themselves on those paths, earlier this school year they tried to enroll in career and technical education, or CTE, classes at their school in Chicago’s Southwest suburbs, even if it meant skipping lunch to fit these courses into their schedules.

“Are you sure you’d be interested in that?” was one of the things Deir said she had heard from the school’s academic counselors.

“Students are discouraged to take certain CTE classes — especially female (students) — in things like cars and autos … things that are seen as more masculine,” said Turza.

Deir agreed, adding she felt the discouragement from adults “takes away your potential.”

“Just because you’re a woman doesn’t mean you have less potential than a man,” she said.

Both enrolled in the CTE classes anyway. Then they took their concerns to the Capitol.

Deir and Turza were two of about 100 high school students from around the state who met with lawmakers in Springfield last month to call for more support and funding for CTE opportunities in high schools, vocational schools and career centers. The meetings were part of the 2025 AMPLIFY Conference by SkillsUSA Illinois, the state chapter of a national nonprofit aimed at preparing students for careers in trade, technical and skilled service occupations.

They also called to attention the need for more equitable opportunities for women in the trades, thus encouraging more female participation in the field.

A recent statewide study by SkillsUSA Illinois found high school students now have more work-based learning opportunities such as apprenticeships and CTE programs than when the state implemented a plan to increase CTE opportunities in 2019 spurred by a federal law. But the study also highlighted continued barriers to entry into the trades, including unpaid internships and minority-based disparities, such as low participation from female and nonwhite apprentices in certain fields.

The study was a joint effort by SkillsUSA Illinois and the P-20 Research and Data Collaborative at Northern Illinois University to assess the work-based learning landscape for high school students. The study shows school-based programs could use more support, said Eric Hill, executive director of SkillsUSA Illinois.

“We need to find champions in our local districts and give those champions resources to be able to better expand opportunities to our students and give them more apprenticeship opportunities,” he said.

Apprenticeship challenges

Illinois efforts have been bolstered since 2019 by the Illinois Works Jobs Programs Act, which was included in Illinois’ $45 billion infrastructure plan passed during Gov. JB Pritzker’s first year in office. It includes three key programs: An apprenticeship initiative that provides trades and construction opportunities; a pre-apprenticeship program that supports underrepresented talents in construction; and a bid credit program that encourages contractors to hire more apprentices from more diverse backgrounds.

The SkillsUSA Illinois study noted progress but also ongoing challenges. It found Illinois saw a roughly 28% increase in new apprentices from 2019 to 2024, growing from 6,475 to 9,041 over these five years.

Female participation, however, only accounted for 14% of new apprentices last year, though that figure represents a doubling from 7% in 2019. Though the population of female apprentices is growing, women still have the lowest rates of participation in construction, as well as installation, maintenance and repair, the two largest occupation categories over the past five years, according to the study. The number of new nonwhite apprentices also grew from 26% in 2019 to 46% in 2024.

Minority participants also have a greater presence in lower-paying occupations like health care support, transportation and food preparation, the study found. Last year, 88% of health care support entrants were nonwhite. Eighty percent of all health care support entrants for 2024 were women.

The apprenticeship study also found roughly 40% of students at surveyed schools participated in internships, though the majority of them worked in unpaid roles, which can “disadvantage underrepresented groups, further exacerbating inequities,” according to the report.

Hill said unpaid apprenticeships or internships can hinder students’ ability to pursue trades as a lifelong career, specifically those who are heads of household income earners.

“We’re asking them to give up the ability to have a paid wage to take an unpaid internship, and that is something that we have systematically got to get away from in the state of Illinois and across the country,” Hill said. “We cannot connect students to job opportunities if we’re not showing them the benefits of having a job — having a salary or having a livable wage.”

Women in the trades

Organizations like the Illinois AFL-CIO and Illinois Building Trades Unions are working to increase female participation in apprenticeship programs and create pathways for long-term success in the trades.

These organizations have built sections within them dedicated to provide training, mentorship and advocacy for women pursuing careers in construction — dedicated to increasing female representation in the trades. Despite making up nearly half the workforce, women hold less than 5% of construction and building trade jobs, according to the Illinois AFL-CIO.

One way to close this gap is by exposing students — especially young women — to career opportunities in the trades early on in their schooling, according to Marisa Richards, director of outreach and engagement at Painters District Council No. 30, which covers nine local unions in the northern half of Illinois. Many unions are working to bridge this divide by partnering with high schools and middle schools to introduce students to various skilled trades before they enter the workforce.

“The big push right now is also pre-apprenticeship — giving younger students, or people looking for a career change, the chance to test out different construction trades,” Richards said.

One major initiative toward these goals is the second annual “Tradeswomen Take Over Springfield,” an event advocating for policies that expand access for women in the trades. During the first week of March, which also marked national Women in Construction Week and the start of Women’s History Month, more than 200 tradeswomen gathered at the Illinois Capitol.

The event, which coincided with SkillsUSA Illinois’ 2025 AMPLIFY Conference, brought together labor leaders, policymakers and industry professionals to address these challenges. Speakers included Illinois AFL-CIO President Tim Drea, legislators and a lineup of tradeswomen leaders sharing their experiences and advocating for systemic change.

The tradeswomen also traveled to Springfield to lobby for House Resolution 161, which was nonbinding but would technically express the official opinion and will of the Illinois House. It seeks to “affirm that the diversity of Illinois is its strength and that the workforce on publicly funded projects must reflect our state with work sites composed of those from diverse backgrounds, gender identities, races and experiences.”

The resolution, introduced by state Rep. Elizabeth “Lisa” Hernández, a Cicero Democrat, who serves as chair of the Democratic Party of Illinois, also takes shots at President Donald Trump. It cites recent executive orders that “aim to reverse hard-won progress to diversify the workforce and will further entrench systemic occupational segregation, robbing women of economic security.”

HR 161 also claims the Trump administration has weakened entities like the National Labor Relations Board and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission so those agencies can no longer “ensure safe, respectful and harassment-free work sites that uphold workers’ rights.”

The resolution, which is awaiting a hearing in the House Labor and Commerce committee, is sponsored exclusively by Democrats, including House Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch, a Hillside Democrat, who signed on as a chief co-sponsor last month.

The proposed resolution also mentions that 64% of U.S. student loan debt is held by women, a fact that makes “apprenticeships a vital career pathway to economic stability as apprentices earn while they learn.”

• Jessie Nguyen and Bridget Craig are graduate students in journalism with Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications, and fellows in its Medill Illinois News Bureau working in partnership with Capitol News Illinois.

• Capitol News Illinois is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service that distributes state government coverage to hundreds of news outlets statewide. It is funded primarily by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation.