Peter Skene Ogden Secondary School graduates Alex Menzel and Justin Shearer were the recipients of the Secondary School Apprenticeship (SSA) Award last month.
The award gave both boys $1,000 towards further education or tools needed for their occupations.
The award is part of a program run by the Ministry of Education and the Industry Training Authority (ITA), which facilitates training in trades and industry occupations in British Columbia. The ITA gave the Cariboo Chilcotin School District (SD #27) a $20,000 grant to support the SSA program throughout the 2015/16 school year.
The program provides assistance students in Grade 10, 11 and 12 by placing them with local employers to gain experience and credit towards the apprenticeship portion of their trades training while still attending school.
This program is also in association with Accelerated Credit Enrolment Industry Training (ACE IT), which enrolls eligible students into Thompson Rivers University (TRU) and pays for their tuition.
The SSA award is given to any secondary school apprentice who gets 1,000 hours of work experience within a year of graduating.
Menzel has completed more than 1,800 workplace hours with several electrician job placements, including his latest work experience in Fort St. John. From September 2015 to May 2016, he was working for Compress Control Technologies, building sand filters to help retrieve oil.
He will be returning to TRU Kamloops in 2017 to complete his fourth year of electrical apprenticeship. Menzel says he hopes to find a local job to continue building his workplace hours.
“I would like to find a job in town. I’ve learned the industrial side; now, I would like to learn the commercial and residential side of the business.”
Shearer has also completed over 3,000 workplace hours with RJB Trucking as a heavy duty mechanic. He has been working full time with the company since May 2014.
Shearer will be going back to TRU in Kamloops to complete his third year of heavy duty mechanics later this year.
As for the future of the program, School District #27 career programs co-ordinator David Corbett sees it continuing for the foreseeable future.
“The province is pushing to have our young people trained. My hope is that we keep having secondary school apprentices every year and help them get enough hours in to receive this reward.”
