Missy Mackin Reflects on 5+ Years of Trailblazers

By: Missy Mackin, Trailblazers Manager

In October 2018, I was given the opportunity to reimagine what VWW’s trades training programs for women and gender-expansive individuals (women+) could look like. The previous few years had been a time of great change at the organization, with 27 years of STEP UP training classes including electrical, plumbing, communications, and law enforcement paused while leadership and staffing shifted. With things a bit more settled, we were ready to return to our trades-training roots by applying for a one-year WANTO (Women in Apprenticeship and Non-Traditional Occupations) grant from the Women’s Bureau of the U.S. Department of Labor, in which we promised to offer four cohorts of a 6-week program with female instructors teaching groups of women to use power tools safely and comfortably in a safe and supportive environment. Once we were awarded the grant, we began researching programs and best practices across the U.S. in order to develop what we would soon call Trailblazers in honor of the women who had paved the way and those who would follow them. 

To tailor our program to the needs of working women in Vermont, we decided to hold classes two evenings per week and all day Saturday and to keep the time fairly brief at six weeks for each cohort. Collaborating with the Vermont Talent Pipeline, we wanted to offer industry-recognized credentials, choosing the NCCER (National Center for Construction Education and Research) curriculum certification used by Vermont technical centers, as well as OSHA 10 safety certification and First Aid/CPR. And because we’d found lots of data on the importance of mentorship for helping women stay in the trades, we chose to start a private Facebook group called Vermont Tradeswomen, which currently boasts 300+ members. We also explored ideas that would soon become constant elements of the program, such as exposure to electrical and plumbing; inviting local employers to visit and attend job fairs; inviting tradeswomen to join a mentor panel during each cohort; and providing tool bags for participants. And we knew from the beginning that we would provide ongoing career support to all Trailblazers graduates, assisting them with resumes, interview skills, and employer networking. We successfully held all four of the promised cohorts in 2019: two at the Career for Technology in Essex, one at Hartford Area Career and Technology Center, and one at the Chittenden Regional Correctional Facility in South Burlington, with a total of 44 graduates.

We dove into 2020 excited to build on the success of our first year, and… Covid happened. We persisted, however, and graduated six participants while expanding our network of instructors to eight female carpenters, plumbers, and electricians, and one male carpenter. We also experimented with new types of funding after the WANTO grant ended. Fortunately, we had a superstar Development team who kept Trailblazers solvent and even got KEEN Utility to provide work boots!  

By this time, it was evident that our participants were an extraordinary group, with farm workers and owners of old houses wanting to expand their skills and just as many who wanted to start trades careers after years in desk jobs. Many are mid-career; most have four-year degrees; some have Ph.D.s. The common sentiment is “I always wanted to learn to build things but no one would teach me; I was steered toward college but all I want is to work outdoors and see the results of my efforts at the end of each day.” We made tweaks to the program based on student feedback, which included making instruction more hands-on by moving away from the testing-heavy NCCER curriculum while keeping it as a foundational framework to structure the class around instruction in power tools, construction math, and blueprint reading. We began bringing in experts in various fields such as solar, weatherization, and heavy equipment to expand the career exploration facet of the class, with each instructor bringing their own skills and background to enrich the experience.

In 2021 we were finally able to add our signature piece to the Trailblazers program: paid on-site internships which give participants up to two weeks of real-world experience working in the trades. According to Ronnie Sandler, VWW’s founder, this work experience is “priceless and essential” for learning what it is really like to do the work every day. It also addresses the long-established and deeply ingrained misogyny of male-dominated industries such as the construction trades, since all interested employers must complete our trademark inclusive-workplaces training in order to be considered for hosting. To their credit, those employers are changing the face of the industry from the traditional “old boys’ club” to one that’s a better reflection of American society (and healthier for everybody). 

Over the years we’ve built a large network of employer and non-profit partners across the state who host, and often hire, Trailblazers interns. From the beginning of 2021 through the first half of 2025 we placed 100 participants in internships or job shadows with employers in residential and commercial construction, road construction, water treatment, solar, electrical, HVAC, weatherization, and community-based organizations such as COVER Home Repair and Habitat for Humanity, with about half starting jobs in the trades within six months. Employers who had never thought about hiring women+ now do so regularly; many start because their need for workers is so dire but continue once they understand how many want to do the work, can do the work, and are excited to learn.  

Like all the best endeavors, Trailblazers has been a collaboration from the start. The program has tapped into the skills and creativity of everyone at VWW as well as those we partner with— and, of course, our amazing participants, who say it best: “I felt so comfortable, and, for the first time ever, in my whole entire life, like I had found my people, or at least know where to find them. To say that was a new experience for me doesn’t convey how revolutionary it feels.” (Oliver, Swanton Trailblazer ’25). Over the past seven years there have been times when, deep in the daily details of managing the program, I’ve forgotten just how revolutionary it is to provide spaces for women+ and power tools to coexist. But revolutionary is the right word, even (especially) in 2025. I’m lucky to have been part of it and confident that it will continue to empower people and change lives in the years to come.  

Missy, thank you for all you’ve done for Vermont women, enjoy retirement!