The pandemic that forced educators to scramble to devise new methods of teaching is having a lasting effect that will enhance how students at the College of New Caledonia learn.
During the lockdown period when students were forced to stay home and use computers to link to classrooms, one of the college’s automotive service technician instructors perfected a method of using his phone camera to replicate what he was seeing while working under a car. Now he projects the video onto a large screen for all the students in the shop to see, instead of having them crowd around him under the vehicle struggling to see what he’s doing.
“COVID was difficult for everyone but if there’s a positive out of it, we’ve adapted some alternate delivery methods that we’ve incorporated into our learning today,” said Frank Rossi, CNC’s dean of trades.
“Because trades is so heavily into practical training, we need to be innovative when it come to stuff like that and a lot of instructors stepped up to the plate and made the adjustments we needed in the shops.”
Course content in trades programs continues to evolve as technology advances. CNC automotive students have four new hybrid cars in their shop donated to the college to learn how to diagnose and repair battery-powered vehicles. Electrical apprentices are studying solar power generation and carpentry students are learning how to build homes and structures that utilize high-efficiency materials and renewable energy systems.
Fueled by a shortage of housing and a thriving economy, construction trades are booming in north central B.C. and the demand for trained workers is ever-increasing as skilled workers retire from the workforce. The college estimates that apprentices will fill 41 per cent of B.C. jobs over the next decade and is working with the province to try to open its most popular programs to more students.
Aside from a two-week lull in August, classes are in session year-round at CNC. The new term for carpentry, electrical, heavy mechanical trades and professional cook programs started in mid-August, while all other programs begin classes Sept. 7.
COVID restrictions forced CNC to limit its class sizes starting in the spring of 2020 and with the return of classes this fall, college capacity is now back to pre-pandemic levels. Carpentry and plumbing apprenticeship programs are close to being full, while CNC’s electrical and heavy mechanical trades foundation programs are oversubscribed and have long waitlists. The demand for trained workers is such that electrical and heavy duty mechanical trades students already have job offers from industry players and most will graduate into apprenticeships once they complete their foundation programs.
The B.C. government is reinstating a requirement that workers in 10 compulsory trades will soon have to be certified tradespeople or registered apprentices. The trades affected are electricians (industrial and construction), automotive service technicians, autobody/collision technicians, heavy-duty equipment technicians, gasfitters, steamfitters, pipefitters, air conditioning mechanics, sheet metal workers, and powerline technicians. The legislation, which will be phased in by 2025, is designed to make workplaces safer and increase the number of registered apprentices.
“That’s going to really put a lot of pressure on the school system because there’s going to be a higher demand for individuals to get their certifications,” said Rossi. ”You will have to a registered apprentice or leaning to a Red Seal certification. There might be some questions from industry, but I think that’s a good system that will really boost the apprentice numbers, and we need that because of the aging demographics.”
Some workers, especially those in rural areas, have learned their trades on the job and never had formal training and that will complicate how the new rules will affect some job sites.
“The (Industry Trades Authority) is trying to address that particular issue where you’ve got folks who have been working in the field who aren’t certified and are probably going to need some different path to get their certification and CNC and all the colleges will have a big role to play in that,” said Chad Thompson, CNC’s vice-president academic.
Traditional four-year apprenticeship programs won’t work for some of those businesses and to encourage more employers to take on apprentices the province’s 15 post-secondary trades schools are consulting with the ministry to prepare alternate learning delivery models.
CNC has technology programs in power engineering, civil engineering, computer networking , natural resources/forest technology and post-diploma information technology. Next year, the college plans to unveil a two-year diploma program in information technology program, which will be the first offered in northern B.C.
CNC continually monitors labour market needs and is working on an industry initiative to develop a professional driver training program, which is contingent on government funding.
Civil engineering was added as a new program added in 2020. The first cohort of civil engineering graduates completed their studies in June and 93 per cent of the first- and second-year students had jobs lined up before their classes ended.
“There’s an urgent need for civil engineering technologists, especially after the floods of last year and how much is needed to rebuild infrastructure to maintain infrastructure,” said Thompson.
“Our natural resources/forest tech program is still full, it’s got very strong industry support. The forest sector is changing but we still need the forest technologists supporting the forest industry itself and of course the restoration/reclamation side of things, not just related to forestry, but mine site reclamation. You’re still doing the work of a forester.”
The college continues to promote its Trades Discovery Program which allows high school students who have completed Grade 9 English and math to earn credit for a 20-week, 300-hour program that allows them to experience four different trades. Each year, CNC takes 64 Trades Discovery students at the Prince George campus and more attend the college’s satellite campuses in Burns Lake, Quesnel, Vanderhoof and Mackenzie. CNC plans to soon add its technology programs to the choices available to young students on its Trades Discovery list.
“We often hear that in order to get more individuals into the trades, we have to get them in at an earlier age,” said Rossi. “So we are working with the school district to have students in Grades 9, 10 and 11 to discover different trades in hope they will in the future get into an apprenticeship and move into a Red Seal.
“There is a high waitlist to get into Trades Discovery because we’re limited by the amount of seats we can get. We’re trying to look at the under-represented groups and one of the cohorts last year was an aboriginal female cohort and it was a highly successful program.”
Since 2000, CNC has offered dual-credit programs to Grade 11 and 12 students attending the Career Technical Centre. When those students graduate high school they’ve already completed the first level of an apprenticeship program. Some CTC students take their instruction with college students and some stick with their high school peers in classes of 16 students. Once they compete the course and fulfill their workplace hours they are regarded as second-year apprentices.
“It kind of de-mystifies the college,” said Thompson. “A lot of students here are first-generation students and no one in the family might have gone on to post-secondary and setting foot into the college is an intimidating experience. If they get that opportunity at high school they get to see that it’s a great place to be and it breaks down that fear that some of them have and they feel they belong here.”
