Island builders giving back to trades training
Camosun College is just over $1.5 million away from fulfilling the dream of outfitting its new trades building with cutting-edge tools and updating older facilities on its Interurban campus, says the college’s fundraising arm.
The TRADEmark of Excellence campaign, which last year started fundraising with a goal to raise $5 million, has gathered just over $3.4 million for the program. That fund will help finish off the school’s $30-million, 80,000 square foot Centre for Trades Education and Innovation by adding tools and equipment. It will also allow the college to renovate an existing 170,000 square feet of trades space.
Camosun is officially opening the centre Thursday with tours and the unveiling of its “Donor Wall.”
“We are making good progress and we are still seeing the families of Victoria coming through in a major way,” said campaign director Angus Matthews.
Matthews said they hope to reach their $5 million goal before the summer, and the campaign has been helped along by driving home the need for new skilled tradespeople to be ready to deal with a looming labour shortage.
The province has estimated there will be one million jobs, many of them in the skilled trades, created through retirement and industry expansion between now and 2022.
“The profile of trades has been greatly enhanced during the campaign, and we have done a lot of explaining how the trades are critical to the economy in B.C.,” Matthews said, adding they have also driven home the message that careers in the trades are a solid choice for young people.
“You can say all you want about the predicted job growth, but the departure from the workforce is a huge factor — 68 per cent of the predicted job openings over the next five years are departures,” he said. “Camosun teaches four of the five most in-demand trades, so we know we have to put this new building to work and work it hard.”
When the school is finished renovating the older space, it will be able to take a serious bite out of its trades waiting lists.
The updating program will take between 18 and 24 months. When complete, it should allow the school, which currently trains 2,700 trades students each year, to handle another 1,000 students.
Right now, there is a two-year wait list for electrical and heavy mechanical training. The wait is about 16 months for plumbing and welding is about six months.
“We’re starting to ramp up, but it’s nothing compared to what we will do in the next year and a half,” he said. “When the old buildings are completely overhauled and repurposed, that’s how we get double the space for electrical, double for plumbing and double for carpentry.”
Good trades training is essential to keep the country competitive, said Robert Lashin, president of Houle Electric.
“Properly funded trades training ensures a strong construction industry fueled by properly trained skilled workers. B.C. and Canada’s future is dependent on our ability to build the fast evolving, complex, technological infrastructure now necessary to compete globally,” he said.
Lashin said Houle, which started in Port Alberni in 1944 and has since expanded to eight offices around B.C., gives back to the college because it owes some of its success to Camosun.
“We believe in being true partners with an essential training organization like Camosun by having Houle employees serve on their trades advisory board and supporting the Camosun apprenticeship awards,” he said.
John Knappett, chief executive of the Knappett Group noted trades training at Camosun “is the most important training tool on southern Vancouver Island for workers looking to become tradespeople and achieve longterm, well-paid employment.”
Knappett said most of his employees on the Island are Camosun graduates.
“The level of training and the practical, results-oriented focus on trades training provides graduates with credentials equal to anywhere in the world,” he said.
Eric Findlay, chief executive of Andrew Sheret, said his firm also works with Camosun on bursaries and other promotions because the school produces the tradespeople they rely on for their business.