Old equipment hampers trades training

There was some good news and then, almost immediately, some not-so-good news. The good news, at least for the school district, was that a major automobile company had experienced a serious flood at its new-car holding yard in Toronto.

Our local dealer phoned to say if the high school’s auto-mechanic program could use a brand-new car that could never be sold, he was able to supply one. The “new” car duly arrived and was taken into the auto shop.

Then came the not-so-good news. By the end of the week, the teacher, himself a certified mechanic, was in my office explaining that their 20-year-old existing equipment was not able even to begin working on this year’s model.

How much to re-equip? The purchasing agent looked into it and relayed the bad news — much more than we had in the equipment budget for the whole high school.

Advances in auto transmission systems, computer-driven fuel systems, ignition and emission-control systems, electrical systems, powertrain, steering, suspension, brakes — all computer operated/assisted systems — were simply beyond the scope of our secondary-school trades-preparation program.

That’s why high-school trades people welcomed the news in November that the provincial government’s recently announced $15-million Youth Trades Capital Equipment Program will, we hope, be a step toward enabling school districts to begin replacing or upgrading equipment for their trades classes.

The program will see $7.5 million dispersed during the current school year to 59 school districts throughout British Columbia. The remaining $7.5 million will be distributed in the 2017-18 ($4 million) and 2018-19 ($3.5 million) school years (presumably, these latter amounts will flow if the “right” party is re-elected).

Randy Grey, president of the B.C. Technology Educators’ Association, welcomed the news: “Technology education is where youth get a chance to experience and hone skills that often lead into a trade. Yet we do not see the support from the Ministry of Education or government. There have been millions of dollars going to postsecondary trades training, but not much at the high-school level.”

As anyone who has had to make a lot of calls before successfully tracking down a reliable and fully trained trades person knows, B.C. is not overflowing with trades expertise.

According to B.C.’s Industry Training Authority, positions in the trades are anticipated to account for just over 10 per cent of new labour-market demand between 2010 and 2020, but some projections are higher.

Perhaps part of the problem is that trades training in B.C. is a complicated tapestry of partners including industry training organizations, public and private training providers, labour organizations, employers, employer associations and others. There are also multiple government agencies and programs involved, largely led by the ministries of Jobs, Tourism and Skills Training, Advanced Education and Education.

It is difficult to convince many nontrades parents that a path to a trades education in 2017 is a path to a good life for young men and women, especially when parents, even including some who work in the trades, see that high schools are using outdated and irrelevant equipment.

Equipment problems notwithstanding, the opportunities for kids are there. Secondary school students across B.C. are able to participate in dual-credit programs that allow students in Grades 11 and 12 to gain credits toward their secondary-school graduation while also earning credit in a post-secondary trade or apprenticeship.

The Secondary School Apprenticeship program is a work-based training program where students concurrently work and attend high school.

All well and good from an organizational point of view, but unless secondary schools are able to run programs that see kids working on equipment at least similar to the equipment they’ll be using during actual industry training, their high-school preparation is not nearly as useful as it could be.

So $15 million distributed over the next three years, while it sounds like a healthy sum, is a drop in the bucket. As any tradesperson knows, a single “smart” drill press in a classroom needing four or five of them can run over $2,000.

The up-to-date equipment my auto mechanics teacher needed, including brake lathes, a hoist and an engine analyzer, was going to cost a lot more than that.

And that is just to prepare B.C.’s newbie pre-apprentices for the next three to five years of working toward that certificate of qualification, which is recognized across British Columbia, or an Interprovincial Red Seal.

Trades development in B.C.? There is work to be done, and it could begin with a serious upgrade of secondaryschool trades-training equipment.