A Q&A Session
Women in Manufacturing with Lilly Wood
Welder/fabricator Lilly Wood credits supportive guidance at critical moments for helping her discover and thrive in a profession she might never have otherwise considered. Her future changed course when she was introduced to welding through a workplace visit. That single day at Charlottetown Metal Products sparked a passion that continues today.
Canada’s manufacturers face critical shortages across all skilled trades. Despite automation advances, the demand for qualified tradespeople continues to grow urgently. To address this challenge, forward-thinking companies are finding that personalized guidance and workplace exposure can attract talent who might never have considered these careers.
From that first real-world introduction to dedicated community college instructors and supportive coworkers, each person in Wood’s chain of mentorship played a crucial role. In this Q&A, Wood shares how meaningful encouragement helped her choose welding as a profession.
Q: What do you do, and where do you work?
A: My name is Lilly Wood and I’m a welder fabricator at Charlottetown Metal Products (CMP). My job duties mainly include grinding and welding metal to create food processing systems.
Q: What inspired you to consider welding and skilled trades?
A: I had someone who knew that I didn’t see a future in university for me, so he took me under his wing and showed me the trade of welding. I spent a day at CMP where I got to learn a little bit. I immediately fell in love with what I saw, and I’m doing it now.
Q: Where did you learn welding?
A: I went to a welding program at Georgetown, which is at my Community College. My teacher showed me all the important facts and knowledge that you need to be successful in the trade.
Q: What was it like when you started working?
A: My coworkers helped me. There are so many different ways to do things in this trade that it’s really helpful having a wide range people to give you information.
Q: Looking back, how do you feel about your decision to be a welder?
A: Choosing a career in the skilled trades is one of the best decisions I’ve ever made for myself and has made me an independent person.
Q: What advice would you give to someone about deciding to work in the skilled trades?
A: For those of you considering a career in the skilled trades, but think you don’t know anything about it or you’re just you never tried it and you’re not sure, take the risk and be confident in what you’re doing and don’t worry about what other people are going to think and what they might say.
Just try. You might fall in love and it might be your lifelong career, and you’ll be the happiest. You are making your own money and working those hard hours, but it feels so good at the end of the day when you can go home and just know you’re happy.
There are many opportunities for women: engineering, quality, production control, logistics, finance, human resources. There’s a lot of opportunity for growth, for pay, for work/life balance, security, and to be able to have great jobs.
For more information on EMC’s HerJourney Program, please visit our website. HerJourney is funded in part by the Government of Canada’s Canadian Apprenticeship Strategy.
If you are a woman in the manufacturing skilled trades and would like to share your story, please reach out to EMC’s Marketing & Communications Manager, Tiffany Robbins.