EMPLOYMENT TRAINING
Adults looking to extend their education are enrolling in TDSB’s new courses, including personal training,
New beginnings can be nerve-wracking, even when they bring opportunity. Christina Gomes has good reason to sweat over hers.
Gomes, 33, is enrolled in the first class of the newest course this fall at Yorkdale Adult Learning Centre — a five-month personal trainer certificate program aimed at qualifying students to work in the field.
“I consider it a new beginning of life,” said Gomes, who came to Toronto from Portugal in 2009 and has been looking for a way into the workforce since separating from her spouse.
“You never know where it’s going to take you,” said the single parent of two.
The personal fitness course is a first for the Toronto District School Board (TDSB) and the sixth program at Yorkdale for adults seeking a career change, newcomers to Canada looking for opportunities, or those over 21 who want to resume schooling after an interruption or want a practical course that will lead to employment.
Its launch coincided with the opening of the North York school’s stateof-the-art fitness facility in September. The West 38 Performance Lab boasts 2,800 square feet of treadmills, rowing machines, elliptical trainers, stationary bikes, weight machines and a big spread of turf.
For Mark Ramjattan, 37, the program is an opportunity to change careers after years as a skilled tradesperson doing auto body work and spray-painting.
He stumbled on the fitness course while investigating Yorkdale’s personal support worker program last spring and quickly decided it was a better fit.
“This is a second chance,” Ramjattan said. “I was so excited.”
Working toward a certification in a growing industry was important to him. The bonus is how much he’s enjoying the learning.
“I get up in the morning wanting to go to school,” said Ramjattan, who didn’t continue education after earning his high school diploma. “That never happened before.” West 38 Performance Lab is open to all 2,000 Yorkdale students, who use it before and after classes and during lunch, and has already helped boost registration this semester, says principal Eric Dallin.
The $180,000 project was funded by student registration fees accumulated since the school opened in 1998 and now costs about $40 per student, he added. The plan was approved last November and the centre was ready just in time for the new personal trainer course, which will accommodate up to 30 students.
As well as active training in the fitness lab, the program includes an introduction to kinesiology, healthy active living and entrepreneurial studies. It also includes nine weeks of direct experience through the school’s co-op program.
And when it’s finished, Dallin said, the school acts as liaison to help students write their certification test, thanks to a partnership with the Ontario Fitness Council, the provincial body that sets standards for the industry. The $500 cost is the only fee for the program, which like other adult programs through the TDSB doesn’t charge tuition.
Yorkdale is the second-largest of the TDSB’s five adult schools, which draw 12,000 students a year, some completing high school diplomas and others attending certification programs to help them find employment.
The schools also offer a separate EdVance program for students 18 to 20 to earn high school credits. Altogether, roughly 36,000 adults a year spend time in TDSB classrooms, including those enrolled in English as a Second Language courses or general interest Learn4Life courses to develop hobbies ranging from pottery to ballroom dancing.
Students at the Yorkdale adult school can also pursue hairstyling, a personal support worker certificate, business and technology co-op, train to become a child-care assistant or enrol in pathways to practical nursing, offered in collaboration with George Brown College, which offers post-secondary nursing.
Demand for adult education has increased over the past four years, says Rodrigo Fuentes, central co-ordinating principal at the TDSB. Among the most popular courses are those in which students can earn certifications for the workplace.
“It really is an example of lifelong learning in practice.”
Dallin, a former high school teacher and vice-principal, said teaching adults is gratifying “because your students are there because they want to be there.”
For many, going back to high school marks a turning point and commitment to a career goal. Completion rates in Yorkdale’s certificate programs averages 75 per cent, with highest rates in child care, nursing and personal support worker, he said. “Seeing those success stories is so rewarding.”
Gomes was taking practical nursing at Yorkdale last spring when she heard about the personal trainer course. Although she still dreams of nursing, she saw the fitness program as a way to get back to her former active lifestyle as a teen and to encourage her kids to stay fit.
The opportunity to go back to school so many years after finishing high school is a good lesson for her children, she adds.
“It shows you always have a chance, it doesn’t matter how old you are.”