Mobile Boot Camp Promotes Skilled Trades to Stratford Students

Support Ontario Youth took over the school’s specialized automotive classrooms for a one-day crash course on car repair that included The Pit Crew Challenge, a team-building exercise that had groups of students working together to change the tires of a race car as quickly as possible. At the same time, some of the boot camp’s 12 instructors were also running a makeshift tool and die workshop, as well as a class covering resumé building and interviewing skills.

Nearly 30 Grade 12 students considering careers in the trades participated Tuesday, but not all them are future mechanics. 

Mark Flanagan, an Ontario Youth Apprenticeship Program recruiter with the Huron Perth Catholic District school board, said one of the boot camp’s goals is to offer students a chance to experience a specific trade even if they’re more interested in becoming an electrician, millwright, or horticulture technician. 

“There’s so many (trades), it’s great to experience a little bit of everything before you make your decision on what you’d like to work towards,” he said.

Support Ontario Youth has been bringing these types of boot camps to secondary schools across the province since September. The group received nearly $4 million from the provincial government last year, part of a larger effort to encourage students to help fill Ontario’s growing need for skilled workers.

Jared Rogers was with Support Ontario Youth in Stratford on Tuesday. A carpenter by trade, Rogers now works with a super commuting firm that hires skilled workers from regions with high unemployment and offers to temporarily subsidize the cost of moving them to in-demand jobs elsewhere.

“There’s not enough kids in the trades right now. That’s the big problem,” he said. “That’s why (employers are) asking retired (people) to come back to work. They just need more kids in the trades and I think in general, as a society, we kind of dropped the (ball) on it.”

The boot camps are giving Grade 12 students “a little taste of (the trades) so hopefully it incentivizes them to … continue on, go to school, and get moving along so that us old guys can retire,” Rogers added.

The average age of an apprentice in Ontario is now 29, Flanagan said, so it’s important to let students know that there are incentives for pursuing a career in the trades, including a substantial amount of money for training. 

“You can actually get paid for going to school, the government is offering bonuses after each term, and (only) 10 per cent of a trade course is in the classroom,” he said. “Those are big (plusses) for some students. Everything is in place, we just have to get the best kept secret out of everybody.”

Source: https://www.stratfordbeaconherald.com/news/local-news/mobile-boot-camp-promotes-skilled-trades-to-stratford-students