Guelph high school students got a taste of the trades Thursday morning, as Patene Building Supplies opened its doors for Residential Construction Day.
About 51 students from Wellington Heights Secondary School, College Heights Secondary School, Guelph Collegiate Vocational Institute and John F. Ross Collegiate Vocational Institute went through rotating stations operated by industry professionals, covering masonry, dry walling, cladding, and a tour of the grounds.
All the students are part of the specialist high skills major (SHSM), a specialized program that allows them to gain credits towards their diploma while focusing on a specific economic sector.
Stacy Cooper, a member of the Guelph & District Home Builders’ Association, started the event in 2018 “as a way to give high school SHSM kids an opportunity for a field trip and see and do first-hand what we do in residential construction,” she said.
“We are in a skilled trades deficit. We recognized that we need to get kids into skilled trades, and the government wasn’t doing anything to help with that at a local level,” she said. “So I created the whole concept. I’m very big on experiential learning.”
Cooper said without programs like this, the students might not “know what’s out there. If they don’t get told about drywallers and bricklayers, they don’t know it’s an occupation that they can come into.”
It also gave them a chance to learn specifics, like what the nine components of a house inspection are, and why you would use a larger head nail on roofing shingles.
The host and specific trade focus changes each year, but the message stays the same.
“This is our future workforce right here. We’re trying to get them excited about working in the trades,” said Brenda Walsh, who works in the co-op department of UGDSB.
Walsh said the teachers were thrilled for the opportunity to bring their kids on such a field trip, because they don’t necessarily have all the tools to do these things at school, so it gives them an opportunity to try something they otherwise wouldn’t be able to.
