Boot camp teaches trades
A group of Edmonton high school students is celebrating a newfound passion for construction, sparked by a two-week summer course.
Phoebe Janela Tagumpay, 18, who is the only woman on the team, said the boot camp will help prepare her for college.
“This is what I love,” she said Wednesday. “If you love what you’re doing, you’ll never get tired of it.”
Tagumpay had planned to take finance at university until she realized she wanted to pursue construction engineering technology at NAIT.
“It’s my first time taking a construction course,” she said. “It’s my first time seeing and using those skills.”
Chelsea Erdmann, spokeswoman for Edmonton Public Schools, said the boot camp builds from a program that operated last summer at Centre High. Sixteen students are building greenhouses that will later be donated to charitable organizations.
It’s my first time taking a construction course.… If you love what you’re doing, you’ll never get tired of it
“It’s the first time it’s across the district,” said Erdmann, adding the program cost $25,000 and was partly funded through donations from industry.
“We had representation from pretty much all of our schools, including our Alberta School for the Deaf,” she said. “The plan is to transfer this into a semester program that will give students an even deeper understanding of the construction industry and trades that are out there.”
She said the students in this year’s boot camp enthusiastically arrive on-site at 7 a.m.
“They were often here before the teacher was, and wanted to stay late,” she said, with a laugh. “They were very interested and every single student I spoke to ... said it was so much fun.”
Evan Peters, 18, said the program has taught him skills such as carpentry, glass installation and workplace safety.
“Watching the progression (of construction), that’s another awesome thing,” he said, adding that his favourite experience involved learning about falling protection. “They got us up in a harness and we got to dangle from a tripod.”
Peters said the course has solidified his commitment to pursue a career in construction.
“I thought people might be goofing off all the time, but that’s not the case at all. All of us want to be here, do the work ... and get the credentials.” Line Porfon, spokeswoman for Merit Contractors Association, said in the past pursuing a career in the trades has been seen as a less worthy post-secondary choice compared to university education. People thought “students who maybe weren’t as smart or enthusiastic were put into that,” she said.
“But that culture has started to shift ... it needs math skills, analytical skills, so we are working hard in the industries to have that impression shift.
“If we can have more high schools signing onto this as a concept ... this is going to be a fantastic opportunity for youth to explore a potentially really good career in the trades,” she said.