On the 6th of July, 2021, a two-man team under the mandate of President of Association of Women Engineers of Nigeria, APWEN, Funmilola Ojelade visited Tranos Contracting Limited as part of the efforts to motivate the women in training under the APWEN Tranos Tool and Tiara initiative.
The two-man delegation comprising Isqil Najim and Mariam Haruna with support of the HR team of the company interacted with the female trainees and their trainers to get on-the-spot assessment of their progress.
During the tour, the young women in training were seen working expertly on various machines to deliver their assignments from welding to fabrication and they obviously enjoyed their works.
Speaking to one of the trainees identified as Queen Ben, a graduate of Petroleum Engineering; she described the experience as been a first of its kind and a wonderful one even though she is new in the field. She said she has never done welding before joining Tranos, but they have learnt and mastered some of the art in the field. She said there have not been any challenges of any kind due to her gender and the staff have been very helpful. She expressed her desire to go further in the field as it is a very wide one.
Another trainee, Chinonso a graduate of Agricultural and Bio-resources engineering described the working environment as very conducive and friendly, she used to see welding as difficult but Tranos has succeeded in making welding easy for her and her colleagues. She opined that women are not many in the field because they do not have enough information about the work. She believes women would be more interested in the field if they are exposed and have more knowledge. She said there are many opportunities abound in the field. Talking of career prospect, she noted that the sky is the limit and each of them can proceed to quality control manager or production manager or even above once they master the skills and pay their due in the industry.
Ibijoke, a graduate of Civil Engineering who said she is entirely new to the field hailed her supervisor for making it easy for them to understand the occupation. Her orientation has changed because coming from her field, she thought she only had to deal with constructing structures, but she finds welding interesting now having been exposed to various technicques. She said they treat all the trainees equally with no superior or gender bias. She called for more sensitization on the field as the information is low among the female folk, she said she is blessed and inspired by Tools and Tiaras and now does not think welding should be limited to the male gender.
Mr Joseph Walter, the supervisor, and trainer who is not new to training females in the field said he follows certain processes while training them which make it easy for them. He said although the field has always been male dominated, times are changing and more female participation should be encouraged and they should be given the opportunity. He also pointed out that males are stronger but females are more than capable of doing the job.
The head of Human Resources, Ms. Olayinka said the company is working towards bridging the gender gap that is why they invest in female trainee. She said the company makes sure to hire females whenever they can.
By Mariam Haruna




