Right after graduating from Belmont Secondary, Carson Launder landed a job in the construction of a new high school in the West Shore.
“I think it’s pretty cool,” said the 18-year-old electrical apprentice. “Maybe my kids will end up going here.”
Launder, who said he has always been more interested in hands-on work than sitting in the classroom, came to the job site with little knowledge about electrical work. A few months later, he’s being trusted with bigger jobs.
Launder was among a handful of high school seniors and recent grads who joined Education Minister Peter Fassbender Tuesday on a tour through Royal Bay Secondary in Colwood as it nears completion. The school is set to open next September.
Royal Bay Secondary and the new Belmont Secondary on the former Glen Lake Elementary grounds both have current and former students on their construction crews.
It’s all part of the Sooke school district’s Trades Awareness Skills and Knowledge program — also known as TASK — run in partnership with Camosun College.
TASK was a model for a new trades course, Skills Exploration 10-12, announced by the province in May.
But Shane Simpson, NDP MLA for Vancouver-Hastings, criticized the government’s Skills for Jobs Blueprint, which is supposed to help students transition from school to the workforce, saying there are only 331 apprenticeship placements in the public sector.
Simpson said the government needs to create more apprenticeship placements by requiring companies working on public-sector projects to have a minimum number of apprenticeships spots, as is happening in Ontario and on federal projects.
“The province spends billions of dollars on capital projects itself, yet there are no obligations in the bids on these projects for contractors to have any apprenticeship plans as a requirement of the bid,” Simpson said.
Jobs Minister Shirley Bond promised that the province is working with companies and organized labour to do just that.
