Unique city trades school a model for programs across the country
Regina Trades and Skills Centre marks decade of helping to build Saskatchewan
When he left high school, Jason Bien was scared.
The 17-year-old had no clue what path he should take for future education. Bien jumped from an architectural program at Moose Jaw’s Palliser campus to university for a semester.
“It wasn’t quite my style of learning,” Bien said. “Let’s face it, I’m a rough-around-the-edges kind of country boy, so I figured construction would be the way to go.”
He enrolled in a two-month course at the Regina Trades and Skills Centre (RTSC), and got a job within two weeks of graduating. Now the journeyperson carpenter is a junior site superintendent for a construction firm.
When he graduated in 2009, the construction industry was booming in the province and jobs were readily available. Demand has slowed, but Bien maintains that dedicated people with a strong work ethic can find jobs.
The company he works for hired two carpenters who trained at the centre.
Bien was among RTSC graduates attending the centre’s 10year anniversary celebration on Monday.
John Hopkins, chair of the Regina Trades and Skills Centre’s board of directors, told those gathered that the time clock has been critical to the centre’s success.
“People get paid minimum wage to come through here,” he said. “They have to punch the time clock. If you come in late, you get your pay docked. If you don’t come in, you don’t get paid. If you don’t come in enough, you get fired.”
The staff’s high expectations have resulted in students maintaining a 98.1-per-cent attendance rate and a 91-per-cent employment rate.
The RTSC takes money from its commercial property and puts it into training, Hopkins noted.
“That’s something that’s pretty unique,” he said. “I don’t think there’s a lot of training institutions across the country that would do that.”
In fact, Hopkins said the RTSC is a model for other programs across Canada.
Saskatchewan had the strongest economy in Canada in 2007. It was a time of unparalleled growth and opportunity in the province. At that time, drywallers were in high demand, so drywalling was one of the first courses offered at RTSC.
Now the centre adapts classes to the needs of industry.
“We’ll only put programs on for actual jobs that are out there,” Hopkins said.
When the centre opened, six to eight courses were offered at 828 Albert St.
Later the centre relocated to 1275 Albert St. Now there are five shops, five classrooms and an average of 12 to 14 courses offered every year.
“The real success is that employers keep coming back,” Hopkins said.
Besides adult training, RTSC offers a 12 to Trades program for Grade 12 graduates, and most recently, the Trades and Skills Construction Apprenticeship Program (TASCAP) for grades 11 and 12 students.
Mayor Michael Fougere, one of the original members of the RTSC board of directors, passionately supports the centre.
He noted that RTSC has changed the lives of the 1,300 people who have found sustainable employment because of courses they’ve taken at the centre.
“Giving persons their self worth — so important,” Fougere said. “Twenty-five per cent of the people who go through these doors are Indigenous people. Do you think they’d have had an opportunity elsewhere to go forward? I don’t think so.”
When the centre opened, Warren McCall, NDP MLA for Elphinstone Centre, was the minister of Advanced Education and Employment. He said a number of people in government, including Pat Atkinson, Andrew Thomson and then-premier Lorne Calvert championed the centre. “It was February 2007 and we had some extra money at the midterm, so there was a big investment put into housing and into programs like this,” McCall said. “To be here 10 years on is an amazing day.”