A Claremont Secondary School instructor is looking for three students to ensure the ongoing success of a course that introduces young people to work in various trades.
Garry Arsenault, the Claremont technology-course co-ordinator, said for the upcoming year he has only 13 students signed up for Trades Exploration. But to ensure the course can continue, it should really have as many as 18 and no fewer than 16.
“I just thought: ‘Maybe there are some students in the area, or outside our area or even in our school who might be interested,’ ” Arsenault said.
Kelly Betts, director of the South Island Partnerships working with school districts on Southern Vancouver Island, said Trades Exploration is run in six secondary schools in addition to Claremont: Royal Bay, Edward Milne, Lambrick Park, Frances Kelsey, Gulf Islands and the Individual Learning Centre in Saanichton.
Betts said students enrolled in schools that do not offer Trades Exploration are welcome to travel to one that does. By partnering with Camosun College, school districts can offer introductory vocational instruction that has become forgotten in recent years.
“We are trying to fill a gap now where there is less and less a chance for students to get into a shop and get their hands on tools,” Betts said.
Arsenault said for him, the main genesis was watching what happened with a previous gap-filling measure. Instead of vocational shop classes, teens were sent out on work experiences with contractors or to job sites.
Too often, a job supervisor would ask about a student’s experience. If the student had none, they would be put to work sweeping up, digging a ditch or stacking lumber to keep them out of trouble.
They would not, however, get a good introduction to the work in which they expressed interest. Sometimes they might even decide, unfairly, it wasn’t for them.
Trades Exploration gives the students instruction in workplace safety right off the mark. After all, no responsible job supervisor wants to take on a novice who is green to the importance of safety.
At Claremont, they also get a good introduction to four trades: welder, carpenter, plumber and electrician.
When those students arrive at their job sites, they are wearing steel-toed boots, are mindful of safety and have a basic introduction to the tools at hand.
“So the employer doesn’t mind giving them a little bit of responsibility,” Arsenault said. “They get a chance to become part of a team.”
He said students who go through the program are regularly offered summer jobs or even chances to apprentice. They can also carry on at Camosun College, where many incentives and assistance programs exist worth thousands of dollars.
Arsenault said before he started the Trades Exploration course, he served as a guidance counsellor. He often faced young people saying they had no idea about a career plan.
“They would shrug and say: ‘Well, I like working with my hands,’ ” Arsenault said. “I would ask: ‘Have you ever thought of being a carpenter, tried it?’ and they would say: ‘No.’
“Even if kids don’t go into a trade, it can be good to just be able to fix something in your house.”
