Students from SD63 got a taste of the trades on Thursday at EduTech, a trade show in Sidney revived after an almost 20-year hiatus. About 300 students were at the SHOAL Centre to sample what they could do as a tradesperson.
Shelley McIvor, managing director of Quadrant Marine Institute, said Quadrant was among the original sponsors of EduTech when it first ran, so it made sense to come back. Quadrant joined about 20 other local businesses and training programs presenting that day.
Quadrant is a locally developed, four-year training program sponsored by the province. When graduates finish, they have a provincial marine service technician journeyman ticket. Marine service technicians have the largest scope of trades on the books with the industry training authority, said McIvor, adding they work on heating, air conditioning, interiors and exteriors.
“Marine service technicians work on everything on the structures of the boats, whether they are fiberglass, high-performance composites, steel or aluminum or wooden boats,” said McIvor. She said their program “trains people on the whole boat” and that they could specialize depending on the needs of their company.
The program was developed locally by businesses 20 years ago, explained McIvor. “B.C. is a marine service centre of excellence, so if we can train people to work locally on the recreational vessels, it’s a huge industry in this province especially on the lower island and lower mainland. All of our employers need people.”
Between their facilities in Canoe Cove and Granville Island, Quadrant trains 70 apprentices. McIvor said she was mainly there to raise awareness of the industry.
“When you have students from Grade 9 and Grade 10, for instance, they’re just looking at all the possibilities. So I usually start by asking them if they like boats. It’s letting them know that there are careers out there for the recreational marine industry, locally and internationally.”
Travis Hancock of Titan Boats has been there for 8 years, and at EduTech, he showed off the top structure of a 38-foot catamaran that he said would be Titan’s flagship project of the year. It will become flybridge that holds equipment and gauges. Collectively, the team at Titan have spent about 4,700 hours on it.
“You’ll have around-the-world Wi-Fi up here, which is pretty cool,” said Hancock. He said he liked the variety of work, with each day being different from the last.
“There’s always new adventures, jobs to take on,” said Hancock. “Constant learning.”
“It’s what I wanted to do and I never looked back.”
He said if students were interested in trades, they could use this session as a reminder to focus on those subjects in high school.
“Math is a big one in our trade, so those who excel in math could really excel in this trade.”
He said kids often asked him what they could expect to earn, and he laughed.
“As a journeyman tradesman here you get paid well, there’s no getting around that.”
Besides that, they were most curious about building a whole boat from scratch.
“A lot of it is kids getting their minds blown that they can create something that never existed, right? We get a bunch of flat plate into the shop and we can actually produce a hull from that.”
reporter@peninsulanewsreview.com
Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter