TRADES PROGRAMS HAVE AN INTEGRAL role in driving economic prosperity and building a skilled workforce for the future.
About 75,000 new apprentices will need to be hired annually over the next several years to meet growing demand, according to the Canadian Apprenticeship Forum. Welding and industrial mechanics are two of the trades at risk of not meeting that demand. The construction industry also needs to recruit more than 300,000 new workers over the next 10 years.
TRU’s School of Trades and Technology is doing its part to ensure experienced, skilled tradespeople are continually entering the workforce. Meanwhile, companies in the trades sector are using their charitable bandwidth to enhance training and create opportunities for tradespeople.
Through donor funding as well as industry partnerships and collaborations, students get the most out of their trades education because of opportunities to learn both in and out of the classroom.
Lab visionary and Associate Professor Paul Simpson aspired to design a piping lab at TRU for years, but without funding, his plans were no more than pipe dreams. That is until Andrew Sheret Ltd. stepped up with a $100,000 donation to upgrade the facility.
In addition, Andrew Sheret also established the Andrew Sheret Limited Plumbing Award, a $1,500 annual award set to support piping students for the next 10 years.
“We enjoy investing in the future and the trades are where it’s at these days,” says Chris Eugster, Andrew Sheret regional manager. “Experiential learning creates curiosity and curiosity is how you learn. If you’re not invested and interested in it, you’re never going to learn.”
School of Trades and Technology Dean Baldev Pooni said the lab is the only one of its kind in BC and far beyond, simulating the piping system of a multi-unit dwelling so students can see a live demo of water flowing through a multi-pipe system.
“I dreamed about something like this for a long time,” says Simpson. “The new glass lab benefits students by allowing them to be immersed in an actual working drainage system. We use the lab to introduce experiential learning practices where students can ask questions based on textbooks and experiment with the lab to see a new outcome. This is a big change from traditional trades training.”
Elsewhere in TRU Trades, donors are helping students showcase their hard-earned skills — just one more way they become competitive in the job market. FastCut CNC Inc. provided $15,000 for students to compete in Skills Canada competitions, covering their competition-related expenses.
Many TRU welding students — past and present — have been medal winners at Skills Canada competitions, much to the pride of welding instructor Larry Franzen. FastCut owner Russel Gallup is also a product of TRU Trades as an alum of the school.
“Russ and the team at FastCut are instrumental to our success at Skills Canada,” says Franzen. "Whenever and whatever we need, FastCut is there to help.”
