Shift Needed For Trades Careers

The chair of the Vernon School Board says there has to be a shift in how careers in the trades are viewed by parents and students.

Robert Lee says they need to get parents thinking it’s okay for their kids to pursue careers as electricians, plumbers, and other trades due to the current and future demand in those industries.

“We graduate a lot of kids. They all do well, but the difference lies in the fact that, for some reason, there is an assumption, certainly among the kids’ parents, that the majority of them are going to go to professional careers, and the reality is, the majority of kids don’t. We see that right now in our trades. We lack qualified trades people throughout the entire province,” Lee tells Beach Radio News.

Lee says the school board had a general discussion — led by trustee and former teacher Tom Williamson — at its meeting this week, on how to provide more trades training and opportunities for students, with more discussion planned for the future.

“That was what part of the question coming forward was. Are there some different configurations we’d be looking at? Are there some different alignments or re-alignments? So it’s just a broad, general, topic for discussion and going forward from there, but it was just basically to raise that point for information for all of us,” adds Lee.

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