Our History

West Virginia Women Work (WVWW) was founded in 2000 by Lisa Diehl, a long-time advocate for women on issues related to nontraditional employment, economic self-sufficiency, and poverty. Lisa completed her apprenticeship in the Carpenters Union in 1983 and is a member of OTTERS. During the early years, the organization assisted women in distinct aspects of obtaining and maintaining employment in nontraditional roles. WVWW also assisted and continues to assist employers struggling to meet equal employment goals.

Over twenty years ago, WVWW began offering a tuition-free skilled trades training program called Step Up for Women. Step Up for Women is a post-secondary, tuition-free, skilled trades training course that prepares low-income, undertrained adult students and helps participants overcome barriers to non-traditional employment. In the Step Up Program, students learn the essential skills to prepare, find, and keep a job including resume writing, interview skills, job hunting techniques, effective communication, budgeting and credit, and basic math review. The program originally included construction pre-apprenticeship training and job placement. The Step Up for Women program later grew to include manufacturing in addition to construction.

In 2001, Step Up for Women Construction was launched. The Step Up for Women Construction program is an employment-based, 12-week construction skilled trades training program specifically designed for women to obtain entry-level construction jobs in residential, commercial, and highway construction as well as acceptance into registered apprenticeship programs in the construction industry. The program, which combines job-readiness classroom topics, role-model and employer interactions, physical conditioning, and hands-on training in carpentry, electrical wiring, and plumbing, is the only program in the state to have been recognized by the Department of Labor as a quality pre-apprenticeship. Graduates are employed as laborers, carpenter helpers, electrician helpers/apprentices, sheet metal workers, ironworkers, painters, glaziers, highway maintenance workers, drywall finishers, millwrights, roofers, plumber helpers, building maintenance workers, engineering technicians, and registered apprentices.

In 2016 a second program, Step Up for Women Advanced Manufacturing was added to the training program. Step Up for Women Advanced Manufacturing is a 10-week long, employment-based, pre-apprenticeship training program designed to prepare adult women for entry-level positions and apprenticeships in advanced manufacturing. Students have the opportunity to meet with female role models in the manufacturing industry and visit employers. They take ToolingU online courses specially designed to introduce workers to advanced manufacturing concepts. The students receive hands-on training including learning the basics of high-tech (CNC) machines to make products used in medical, aerospace, pharmaceutical, auto, and extraction industries. Students in the program manually machine projects on mills and lathes, learn to read blueprints, learn to measure and inspect products, and hand-create industrial components.