BUILDING A BETTER FUTURE
TRADES AND SKILLS PROVIDE A PATH FOR IMMIGRANTS.
I earn my living behind a lens now, but sometimes my lingering reporter’s curiosity gets the better of me.
Such was the case when I was sent to shoot a standalone photo of students from the Regina Trades and Skills Centre repainting the inside of Regina’s Bright Beginnings Early Childcare Centre.
After I made a few frames, I engaged in what is one of the few verbal aspects of my job.
“Could I grab your name?” I asked one of the students.
Akintunde Agbeja kindly said and, upon request, spelled his name.
Interesting accent, I thought to myself. Why not ask?
“Where are your from, originally?” I asked him.
Nigeria. He’d arrived in Canada eight months prior. Why had he chosen to learn painting?
Well, in fact, Agbeja had worked for around 15 years as a civil engineer in his home country. His experience and credentials hadn’t translated into a job in Canada. He felt like he was starting over, but he viewed learning a skill like painting as a step toward a greater understanding of the Canadian construction industry — a determined first step back toward his field.
Among the small painting group, there were others who’d come to Canada from abroad. Zaman Rahmani was from Iran. Nara Magsarjav was from Mongolia. Oludare Akinwale was also from Nigeria.
I was curious as to whether the diversity in the painting class was an exception, so I dropped by the Regina Trades and Skills Centre and had a chat with its executive director, Brian Shankowsky.
The centre, opened in fall 2007, seeks to provide students with essential safety knowledge and baselevel practical skills to enter the workforce. The courses offered run somewhere between seven and 12 weeks, and they’re curated largely by industry demand. Around 90 per cent of students find employment after completing their studies, Shankowsky said.
Producing that kind of result begins long before anyone puts on a hard hat.
“We pick our students here based on suitability for the career,” he said, noting that the selection process includes examining a student’s related work history, practical testing and a discussion about the student’s desire to work in a given industry.
Further, because of funding received largely from the provincial economy ministry, students pay no tuition. They are paid a wage to attend. But like a job, if they don’t attend, they’re not paid.
For the 2017/2018 year, the school will receive nearly 1500 applicants, according to Shankowsky. Of those, only about 160 will make the cut.
As of late March, figures showed 38 percent of students were landed immigrants.
Those from abroad have a variety of reasons for wanting to enrol. Some, like Agbeja, have training that is not recognized in Canada. Others just need to learn the “Canadian way of doing things,” as Shankowsky puts it, meaning standards, regulations and the like. Some have reasons unique to their situation.