Program exposes students to careers in the trades

A pilot project being run by the Saskatchewan Apprenticeship and Trade Certification Commission is giving students a chance to learn about career opportunities available to them within the trades.

The Saskatchewan Youth Apprenticeship Program is designed to promote apprenticeship to students in Grades 9 to 12.

According to the commission Web site, the goals of the program are to promote skilled trade careers as first choice careers, to increase student awareness of apprenticeship opportunities and career choices, to provide students with information about the requirements for success in the skilled trades, and to provide a pathway for students to enter trades or technology careers after completing high school.

The program was launched during the 2004-2005 school year in two schools, Assiniboia Composite high school and Thom Collegiate in Regina.

This year, the program is being piloted within seven high schools. Assiniboia Composite and Thom Collegiate are continuing with the program, joined by the Dene Building school in La Loche, Churchill high school in La Ronge, Vanier Collegiate in Moose Jaw, Nutana Collegiate in Saskatoon and Se-Se-Wa-Hum school on Big River First Nation.

"What it is, it's an awareness program," explained Rennie Zabolotney, youth apprenticeship co-ordinator with the commission. "The Grade 9 portion fits in with the Grade 9 career guidance, so all grade nines would be exposed to that and it's basically exploring careers in skilled trades areas and apprenticeship."

In the higher grades, the program is offered in three levels, one per each grade, with each level taking between five to 10 hours to complete. The school can choose to offer the program as an optional extra-curricular activity or can incorporate it as part of the curriculum. Students taking part complete a variety of hands-on activities that allow them to gain information about skilled trades careers.

"As an example, in one of the introductory activities, they'd research and report on one of the 50 designates trades in Saskatchewan. So after they did that they would hand that to their teacher and they would get recognition for that ... Another one is identify and display the four basic steps of becoming a journey person," he said.

"Another activity would be complete a report on an interview with a journey person. And that would be like in the next level. So now they know what apprenticeship is, they know what a journey person is. So now they're going to go and seek out a journey person and interview them and try and gain some information on how did that person get into the trades and how did that person end up where they are today."

While the program was created to provide information to students, it is also designed to be a fun experience for them.

"We found that the kids that were talking part in it last year really, they had a lot of fun with it. Like the Assiniboia project, it was done at noon hours and I think one or two Saturdays, and they really look forward to this. They were quite willing to miss their regular lunch hour and listen to a presentation about another part of apprenticeship. It was really neat. So the excitement is there. And hopefully by the time they've got out of high school they can make some wise career choices."

The commission wants students to consider entering the trades as their primary career choice, Zabolotney said.

"In the past young people that chose not to go to university for whatever reason were viewed as second-rate citizens and, well, you could always go to trades school, indicating that maybe you didn't have the smarts or the abilities to be able to go to university, which is definitely a false thing. According to Stats Can's last report, approximately 28 to 30 per cent of graduating high school students actually go to university. And about 50 per cent of those actually complete university. And about another 50 per cent of those are working in their chosen field within two years of completing their degree. So that leaves a pretty small group that was prepared to go to university and ended up working in their chosen field. So what happens to the rest?"

Students taking part in the Saskatchewan Youth Apprenticeship Program not only walk away with a better understanding of apprenticeship and career options in the trades, they also can receive a head start in their apprenticeship training.

"These young people that take part in the program, they're going to get some trade time credits that they could use toward their apprenticeship program for the hours that they would need to get their journey certificate. If they get registered as an apprentice inside of three years of completing their program we'll waive their registration fee -at the present time that's $150 ... We'll also waive the first level tuition fees when they do take their apprenticeship training and at the present time that's $30 a week. So with one of our regular eight week programs, that'll save them $240," Zabolotney said.

"It's a real kick start because, depending on the trade they're in and what not, they could receive up to 100 hours per year for taking this five to 10 hour program. And the work experience hours that they put in in high school, depending on the trade, would be on top of that. So they're getting hours credit, also they're getting a credit for the high school courses that they're taking to complete their high school, so those credits are going to show up on their transcript also. So it's double or multiple benefits. So it's only win-win-win."

The commission hopes to be able to roll out the program province wide for the 2006-2007 school year, allowing all schools across the province the option of offering. They'll have a better idea whether or not that will happen when the provincial budget comes down at the end of March.