Grade 12 student Kody Seel has a stocky build, and he didn't get that from pushing a pencil in school.
He worked hard for it, doing physical labour like any other tradesman. His body is a result pf many hours spent carrying and hanging heavy sheets of drywall working for his father's construction company.
"I had good size when I started doing it, but through the years of doing it I just piled muscles on my shoulders," said Seel. "I started on job sites when I was eight, packing out scrap and all that kind of stuff. Now I'm averaging at least 70 or 80 hours every two weeks."
Now 18, Seel is one of 18 School District 57 students who received $1,000 Secondary School Apprenticeship scholarships, a provincial program that rewards students for their efforts in gaining trades-related work experience while enrolled as full-time students.
The program has been ongoing in SD 57 since 2001. It averaged about 30 apprentices per year until 2006, when the district started receiving grant money to help students find job placements. In 2007 there were 96 apprentices and that's since levelled off to about 60 students each year. The rules for employers changed slightly in 2010, when the Industry Training Authority required each student sponsor to be certified.
"Many students who work for companies in town work under people who aren't fully qualified," said Bryce Northrup, SD 57's district co-ordinator for career planning. "So it's been a bit more of a challenge in the last three years for us to find people who are eligible to sponsor."
Students usually work outside of normal school hours on weekends or in the summer and by the time they are done, having worked at least the minimum standard of 900 hours, some will have earned their Level 2 apprentice qualifications. Luke Veeken, a 20-year-old D.P. Todd student working for Omenica Fabricating, is already a third-level millwright.
Seel's father Jay and mother Kelly own AARC Drywall, based out of Salmon Valley, just north of Prince George. The apprenticeship program gave Kody a chance earn money as well as diploma credits during school time. Payment is a requirement of all companies who hire students in the program.
"My parents are happy because I'm the only one in my household and family who's got a scholarship," Seel said.
"It wasn't really anything different because normally I just go from school to work, but getting the credits and stuff with it was a huge bonus. It's fairly labour-intensive work and if you're not in decent shape you're going to get killed. In a couple more years I'll be able to go and hang with the best of them."
The program backdated the work Kody did starting in Grade 9 and he's earned at least eight credits per year as a drywaller since then. His father says he's a typical teen, with the usual distractions that go with being a young adult, but when he sets his mind to work he excels at his job.
"He's got a really good work ethic and he's doing quite well -- he's an asset to the company,"says Jay. "Being in the trades, we've had quite a few kids come through this program with us, and Kody is by far the best. He adapts very quickly and it's all about being able to adapt on the fly, rather than sitting in a classroom trying to figure it out."
Like his son, Jay learned on the job, starting when he was 20, and did not go to school for trades training. Jay said he would support his son if he wanted to take any courses but for now, Kody has no plans to do that.
"He weighed his options and said, 'If I go to school to do drywall, by the time I get out of there I could be $20,000 in debt. I could be $20,000 richer in the same amount of time and learn almost exactly the same things.'"
To be eligible for the scholarship, students have to maintain at least a C average. Seel's marks at Kelly Road secondary school were consistently in the B range. For this Grade 12 year, Seel kept his afternoons open so he could leave school to go to work.
"I just picked some really easy courses -- English was the most difficult, that I had issues with, and thank God I had a really good teacher to help me through that," Kody said.
