Claremont Secondary is preparing to launch a new program that will give students training and work experience in four trades as B.C. faces a shortage of skilled workers over the next decade.
The program, open to students in Grades 10, 11 and 12, will run full time from February to June.
Students will receive three weeks of technical training and a week of work experience in a different trade each month.
By the end of five months, they'll have training in four of five possible trades - welding, plumbing, carpentry, electrical and metal fabrication.
"They should be in a position to make a good decision about what they'd like to do," said Garry Arsenault, a career counsellor at Claremont.
The students will also have 40 hours of work experience in each of their four chosen trades. That will leave them well-positioned to enrol in a foundation program for a particular trade at Camosun College or register as a secondary school apprentice.
Arsenault said 12 students have already signed up for the program, but the school has spots for at least eight more from anywhere in Greater Victoria.
Ideally, students would be in Grade 11, since they could complete the program and get the school district to cover the cost of their Camosun training the following year, Arsenault said. The course would give them 24 credits toward graduation, and they could complete their other required courses in the first semester or pick them up in Grade 12.
"I'm looking for any student who is interested in the trades," Arsenault said.
"I don't want somebody who thinks that they're going to be able to come here and do nothing or skip days and stuff like that. It's going to be run like a job."
Arsenault said both the students and their parents will have to be committed to the program. For one week every month, the student will have to be dropped off and picked up at a job site every day.
Employers are keen to help with the demand for workers expected to outstrip supply over the next decade, according to B.C.'s labour market outlook report.
"The majority of our workforce right now will be retiring in the next 10 to 15 years," said Patti Faulconbridge, who handles human resources at Knappett Projects Inc. "We need these new guys coming up. We need them convinced that a career in the trades is a good career move, and I think the schools are certainly encouraging that.
"Going back to the old days, you only went into the trades if you weren't academic. Now we're seeing people that are academic realizing the trades, first of all, would be a good career for your lifetime, but also it's a stepping stone to other things."
Faulconbridge pointed to Claremont student Garrett Best as an excellent example of the kind of employee that Knappett hopes to recruit. The 16-year-old landed a job with the company this summer with Arsenault's help and expects to return to the company as an apprentice.
"He's a wonderful young man," she said. "We need another dozen like him."
Best, who is going into Grade 12 this fall, developed an interest in carpentry working with his father, and said the new Claremont program likely will do the same for others.
"It will definitely give kids a good idea what the trades are like," he said.
Anyone interested in learning more about Claremont's trades exploration program should contact Arsenault by email at [email protected] or call 250-658-6679. [email protected]
