Skilled Trades: Know Your Options
Posted on Monday, May 19th, 2014
The 12th annual Options Skilled Trades Career Fair has come and gone. This award-winning program has been introducing youth in Renfrew County to skilled trades career opportunities for more than a decade. This one-day showcase of apprenticeship training has grown annually and now features 15 skilled trades competitions, involving more than 250 senior high school students. Students compete in trades such as culinary, welding, small engines, carpentry, automotive, and hairstyling.
This fast paced, exciting day allows students from across Renfrew County to show off their skills and know-how and to be celebrated by their classmates. Our Waterfront Campus has worked alongside our four local school boards to support and create an event that celebrates students who don’t always get the credit they deserve. The majority of competitors are students who are either part of the Ontario Youth Apprenticeship Program or part of the Specialist High Skills Majors program.
Employers are a major part of the event too as they sponsor the competitions, provide prizes for the competitors, judges for the competitions, and interactive displays that allow the more than 2,500 high school students who attend the show, to experience the trades. Many employers also attend to promote summer job opportunities for high school, college and university students.
So why have Algonquin College and the Renfrew County school boards committed tireless hours to making this event happen? The reason is simple. There is a stigma surrounding the trades, one that makes a decision to purse the trades post-high school a decision that is less celebrated than a traditional academic path in post-secondary studies. This stigma is losing strength and it is because of events like Options.
There is a shortage of experienced skilled trades workers in Renfrew County, in Ontario and across Canada and in order to bridge that gap we as a community need to support our children`s interest in the trades.
In my role at the college I get to speak to a huge number of high school aged students and I make it a point to celebrate and support those who show an interest in the trades…because if I could do it again, I would explore the trades. No question about that!
Did you go through as an apprentice or a full-time trades related program? What was your experience like? Would you recommend exploring the trades – let us know!
Posted by: Jodi Bucholtz
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