The annual GETT, Girls Exploring Technology and Trades Camp was held this past week, alongside the brand new Mind Over Metal welding camp at Saskatchewan Polytechnic in Moose Jaw.

Girls who participated in the week got a hands-on, safe and supportive experience to explore the tools, equipment, and skills needed for trades.

"The most important lesson for welding camp or like camps where they explore the trades is that trades are an option," Ruth Allen said, who was a volunteer who came back to help out after graduating from the welding program at Sask Poly last year. "They're a lot more fun. They're not just for people who can't make it into the business world, but people who just want to be in there because it's what they like to do."

Friday was the final day of the camp, and those involved were able to show off their creations made at either the welding camp or carpentry camp.

For some of the girls, it was a way to try something new, for others it was to do something they are passionate about.

"Before I was going to go into physics for a career but I took shop and I looked at my hands after the day and saw how dirty they were and for whatever reason that made me happy and so since then I've just loved welding and the feeling I get from it," explained 17-year old Emily Soderstrom from Grenfell, who was apart of the welding program. "Just very exciting."

The week not only taught the girls more about the trades, and throughout the week they became more and more interested in everything they were learning.

"Well the students they always come in and some of them are so quiet they don't even want to talk all you get is a shrug and by the end of the week they're asking questions and they're saying 'can I use this' or 'can I do that' and it's just great to see how they grow," Carpentry Instructor for the GETT camp Sherry Froess said. "I just hope to see more girls come to this and hopefully we see repeat girls come. We had two this year and hopefully more of them will come back and do them again and again."

The GETT camp is put on by Sask Poly's Women in Trades and Technology (WITT) program.