ASHLAND — Non-traditional women’s occupations were promoted to 13 young ladies on March 26th at the “Women in Hard Hats” event hosted at the Ohio Department of Transportation District 3 garage in Ashland.

The teen invitees were chosen to attend by their school counselors and NCWA president Dan Moore of Simonson Construction invited them to don their pink hard hats and hear about occupations such as carpentry, welding, iron working, truck driving, concrete work, and other traditionally male-dominated professions. Presenters for the day were women who are currently employed in 13 different non-traditional jobs.

“It’s really great talking to them (the presenters) and hearing about their experiences,” said Nicole Jenkins, a student at Ashland County-West Holmes Career Center. “(These ladies) are showing it’s not impossible to do these things. There’s nothing wrong with being an ‘unstoppable you.’”

The event was sponsored by the North Central Work Alliance (NCWA) of Ohio in cooperation with the Ashland County Community Foundation (ACCF). The project was selected for funding by the student leaders who help to administer the ACCF Impact grant which supports projects and initiatives specifically designed to benefit the youth of Ashland County.

“We want to raise awareness of non-traditional careers that are and will be available in the future,” said NCWA executive director Erv Howard. “We hope to give some guidance to help young people discover those many and diverse opportunities.”

Adrea Tennant, NCWA Event Coordinator, and Erica Gill, Training Coordinator at ODOT, engineered the event’s planning. Other sponsors included American Augers of West Salem, Simonson Construction, Sutton Bank, Brethren Care Village, First-Knox National Bank, and Spherion of Ashland, J& F Construction of Bucyrus, and Farm Tough of Mansfield.

The North Central Workforce Alliance is a business-driven partnership consisting of employers from North Central Ohio whose focus is to share resources and ideas to solve common problems in attracting, training, and retaining the qualified and dedicated employees needed to grow area businesses.