CBC:
It’s a career in high demand – but still – many just aren’t turning to the trades as a career choice… Even as we see the government pumping more money into the industry… Students taking trades aren’t always sticking with it. The Windsor-Essex Catholic District School Board has a construction academy… And students from there are successfully graduating training programs. CBC’s Amy Dodge has more.
Windsor-Essex electricians and plumbers could be fully qualified to work by the time they are 20 years old.
That’s if they take advantage of an expanding skilled trades program on which the Windsor-Essex Catholic District School Board and St. Clair College have been collaborating.
“I was doing work around the house with my mom … it really interested me — hands on work — it would be really cool to help people build houses,” said Kaelyn Kapsalis as she sanded one of her projects in the board’s Construction Academy.
“It’s like a creation of what you’ve done. You feel good about it,”
Kapsalis doesn’t know what her future holds after Grade 11, but she does know construction will be part of it. She said the apprenticeship hours she’s been logging gives her a head start on everyone else in the trade.