The CWB Association Welding Podcast
The CWB Association Welding Podcast
Skills Canada Series -Season 2- Episode 3 with Dr. Patrick Rouble
The CWB Association has had the honor of working with Skills/Compétences Canada on a special Podcast Series interviewing Team Canada World Skills competitors and experts from across Canada to share their skills journey. Join us as we learn about their skills, celebrate their success, and cheer for our Team Canada as they compete on the world stage in Lyon, France on September 10-15, 2024.
Ever wondered how a national competition can ignite a passion for trades? Tune in as Dr. Patrick Rouble, President of Skills/Compétences Canada dives into the impact of how this competition can ignite a passion for the trades and technology among young Canadians, with over 500 competitors and 6,000 youth in attendance. From traditional bricklaying to cutting-edge IT networking, this event celebrates excellence across various fields, highlighting the significance of raising awareness about rewarding careers in trades and technology.
Follow Skills/Compétences Canada:
Website: https://www.skillscompetencescanada.com/en/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/SkillsCanadaOfficial
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/skillscompetencescanada/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/skills_canada
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/skillscanada
There is no better time to be a member! The CWB Association membership is new, improved, and focused on you. We offer a FREE membership with a full suite of benefits to build your career, stay informed, and support the Canadian welding industry. https://www.cwbgroup.org/association/become-a-member
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All right, I can check. Check, I'm good. So I'm Max Duran. Max Duran, cwb Association Welding Podcast, pod pod podcast. Today we have a really cool guest welding podcast. The show is about to begin. Hello and welcome to this special edition of the CWB Association podcast. My name is Max Teran and we are here at Skills Canada's Competencies in Quebec City doing amazing work with our fantastic partner, skills Canada, and today we have the fantastic Dr Patrick Rubel. How are you doing today?
Speaker 2:Excellent, Max. We've got a great start to Skills Competence Canada's national competition here in beautiful Quebec City. The competitors have started. They're working on their projects. It's amazing to see the focus, the intensity, and it's great to see so many kids coming in here and being exposed to all of it.
Speaker 1:Well, I heard numbers like 5,000 or 6,000 kids coming through over the next couple of days.
Speaker 2:Well, we've got over 500 competitors here from across Canada, so that's from coast to coast to coast, every province and territory, and we're expecting over 6,000 kids from local schools here in Quebec.
Speaker 1:City and you know, I don't know what's more impactful the amazing competitors that are doing the things, the kids that are coming through to see it and witness it and get inspired, or the trainers and supporters. And I mean there's so many tiers.
Speaker 2:It's all of the above. I mean. The big thing about Skills Competence Canada is that we want to work to make young Canadians and their communities aware of meaningful and rewarding careers in trades and technology, especially welding, especially welding, especially welding, especially welding.
Speaker 3:And we're right in front of the welding area here.
Speaker 1:So if you hear any grinders, it's because we are here. It's for real.
Speaker 2:Well, it's for real. We can see the sparks, we can hear the grinding and we can smell the metal being cut.
Speaker 2:And it's that immersive nature of things that makes it so great. We've got 13 member organizations in every province and territory. They're the ones that do all the heavy lifting, they're the ones that go into the schools, they work with the skills clubs, they work with the after-schools clubs, they work with the summer camps, they get the word out in their communities and then they hold regional or provincial or territorial competitions. No-transcript. So yeah, it brings the kids, those participants together, it brings the teachers together, it brings industry together.
Speaker 2:And it brings policymakers together. Yeah, to really see.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So we bring you know everybody here to make you know move forward. How do we make more young Canadians and their parents and their teachers and their aunts and uncles aware of the meaningful and rewarding careers in trades and technology?
Speaker 1:Well, and you know it's interesting, you say coast to coast to coast because sometimes we forget about that northern coast and you know you're from Whitehorse, yukon, that's where you live now and work out of, and the importance of the future development of the north is a big conversation that we have all the time. I feel like it's an untapped resource financially, resource wise and even culturally. It seems like it's kind of an untapped resource to north. You know how do you feel about that, with it being your backyard? Sure, I mean.
Speaker 2:I'm a little bit biased.
Speaker 1:Be biased. We love it.
Speaker 2:Living in the Yukon, which is, I would say, the best part of the best country on the best planet that we're involved in. Yeah, tremendous opportunities, tremendous opportunities for growth, yeah, and with young populations across the north, especially young populations in our indigenous communities. Uh, we've got a responsibility there to you know give people a future, uh, show them the path. I think it was metallica that said how can I be lost if I've got no place to go? Yeah, part of our job is to give people a place to go, a hope for the future, a vision for the future. And you know they can see that here when you walk around the competition areas here.
Speaker 2:every kid here can see themselves reflected in the competitors on the go, whether that's the folks down, and I love this. We've got brick laying and mortar work on one side and we've got IT networking professionals across the hall. You know traditional bricks and mortar and the modern day technology infrastructure and we've got IT networking professionals across the hall. Yeah, you know traditional bricks and mortar and the modern day technology infrastructure side by side.
Speaker 1:And with this, you know, with all the support that's going on here and all the people working together, at the end of the day we say it's a competition. When I was talking to the welding students this morning, getting them pumped for the day, kind of reminding them of what the mission is, you kind of forget it's a competition. It's more like we're all working together to see who can be the best.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we're. We're celebrating excellence. Yes, Uh, and competition. You know that's part of the how our economy works, is that? How do we push to be better, how do we improve and how do we come up with that authentic assessment to show who is one of the best? But it's all about improving, making those incremental changes. And I mean the kids here, the kids, the participants, some teens, lots of 20s. They're showing off their skills, they're improving, they're all learning something Heck. I talked to one fellow in the sheet metal area today. He's been doing this for 30 years, Gills.
Speaker 1:Working in the trade? Yeah, okay.
Speaker 2:And he said he learned something new every year. That's true, it is. So I mean that's pretty neat. We've got the technical folks, the instructors, the industry folks learning new things and the students learning things and then the participants learning things. I mean it it's everything. For somebody with a background in education, it's a pretty exciting event it is, and this is an exciting year.
Speaker 1:We got team canada here representing. I was able to go to uh kazan, russia 2019 with my at the time competitor. I was a welder instructor back then and I got to see the world stage of what skills is and how we fit in that puzzle as Canada and we're no joke. We're no joke. We go out there to win and for the amount of, I would say, in some ways we're kind of behind the competition of some other countries we represent very well and I found that our place in the global community is also very important to kind of niche out.
Speaker 2:Sure. Yesterday at the opening ceremonies one of the emcees was Emma Kilgore and she won third place in baking and patisserie at the Worlds two years ago. You know when you go to Switzerland and compete in baking and patisserie at the world's two years ago. You know when you go to uh, switzerland and compete in baking and patisserie and make which is the capital of baking and the the capital that and you get the french team and you know the, the swiss team and the whole bit, and she was third.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean that she's a champion, that is. That's pretty cool. And now here, like over in the industrial mechanics section, which is a pretty cool event too, it is yeah, because they do welding and everything yeah.
Speaker 1:That's a new. A little bit of welding, a little bit of machining, hydraulics, everything yeah.
Speaker 2:Pneumatics instrumentation. You know the whole bit. You know Jeff Brezzo and his team over there do an amazing stuff. Well, they've got four world skills competitors over there now doing an international training routine. So we've got folks from four different countries over there here in Canada participating. So they've come here to learn to compete. Well, not quite compete, but you know it's demonstrating their skills on a similar competition level like we will have at the Worlds. And you mentioned how does Canada compete on the Worlds stage. Well, you know we talk about increasing the productivity of people here in Canada. The best way to do that is to be on the stage with the rest of the world. Yeah, let's see where we are.
Speaker 2:Let's see where we are and let's see where we're behind and let's see where we can learn and improve and we'll see where we can you know up our game, and the only way we do that is by comparing ourselves with others.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and there's differences in investments and education systems, and it's good to see how that pans out, right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and it would be great to see how some things might pan out in Toronto a couple years down the road. There might be an opportunity for the world to see more of Canada.
Speaker 3:That would be great.
Speaker 2:And for Canadians to see more folks from around the world we've got uh 84 different countries and world skills.
Speaker 1:Now it'd be great to invite those different countries to come to canada and celebrate skills well, and we can show off, like I remember in kazan seeing the welding team from ghana, you know, and it's a couple kids who had very little access to resources but they had no intention on placing anywhere in a winner's circle or not, but to them every minute there was a win right, every minute there is a win and for us to showcase Canada like that I think would be amazing to to do to the world well and it's a too that many of the skills that we have on display here and that we're focused on, well, they're transferable around the world.
Speaker 2:If you're going to make a profiterole here in Canada, it's the same as making a profiterole in Switzerland or in Ghana. The Volvo tractor that people are working on here is the same Volvo tractor that they're working on in Germany, wherever Germany, wherever you know. There's so many of these things that, uh, you know the, the skills that they're learning, the building things, making things, fixing things. It's transferable around the world. So let's, uh, let's, let's invite the world in and uh, learn from them and show off what.
Speaker 1:Canada has. That's fantastic. I'd like to jump the fence real quick here, because you talked about how you were in education. You're a former minister with the government in the Yukon. You've been kind of in the sphere of the public sector. Why skills? Why get involved? You know, from your point of view, stepping in now as chair of the board of directors, what is it that that brought you in to be a part of this world, this team?
Speaker 2:so I got lucky in 2009, when calgary hosted the world skills competition. I was invited there and had a chance to see it firsthand. And once you get in here and you see the sparks fly, you hear the grinding going on, you smell them, the cutting oil in the air, you see the excitement and enthusiasm of the kids watching, of the competitors of the ntc, of the industry people and the sponsors involved.
Speaker 3:It I don't know, I don't know how you don't get infected.
Speaker 2:you, you know I don't, so I saw it. It engaged me. When I retired from office a few years ago, I said how else can I contribute? And this is an organization that, as I said, makes young Canadians and their community aware of meaningful and rewarding careers, sets them up for success, gives them a destination, gives them a goal, gives them a path to get there. And I said well, how can I get involved and help to make this work?
Speaker 1:And in terms of the growth of skills. You know I've been a part of kind of in and out of skills, either as a mentor or an educator and now as a sponsor. I've seen the evolution of the skills network, the skills events, the skills for success campaigns, the skills changes life campaign and the women in the trades campaigns. How important are all these offshoots of the main skills work in developing our future.
Speaker 2:Well, it all goes hand in hand when we think about a prosperous future, whether it's collectively as a society or individually for a human being. I think we need those paths to get there. We have a duty and responsibility to prepare young people for meaningful and rewarding careers. We can see 45 different career starts here.
Speaker 1:This isn't where their careers are going to end. This is just step one. This is just step one.
Speaker 2:This is concluding their apprenticeship, entering the workforce and then seeing where the world takes them. So this is setting people up for success and it's also reminding us that we have multiple different paths and needs in our community. I mean, can you imagine a community where we didn't have Welder? Well, I don't think there is one.
Speaker 1:Well, you can't have one or without plumbers or electricians or all these amazing things that are part of our everyday social fabric.
Speaker 2:You know, if we don't have the industrial mechanics making sure that the power plant is running, if we don't have the heavy equipment technicians making sure that the trucks are running, we don't have the electricians sitting there making sure the lights are on, everything grinds to a halt. It does. You know, we can do a lot if the politicians take a break for a month or two, but it's not going to be the same if the plumber, uh, takes a break for a month or two.
Speaker 1:Well, covid taught us that lesson, you know, the world came to a halt, except for the trades. There was no days off, there was no days off.
Speaker 2:they're needed, um, they're respected. You know the past stereotypes certainly don't reflect the modern interpretation of a current career in trades and technology. You know some of the I don't even want to talk about the stuff from the past, but the path forward is different. It is, you know, and it's pretty neat and it's pretty bright too.
Speaker 1:Yeah, what about the next few years for skills? You know what's on the horizon. What are we thinking about? Is there new projects? Is there new things that are rolling out even at this you know event that people should be aware of that perhaps it can be involved with or volunteer with?
Speaker 2:Sure, there's lots of ways to get involved, whether it's in an occupation or a skill area. We've got a couple of features, events here today, whether it's empowering women in trades and technology. We've got a great setup, a couple of booths over here where young women are sharing their stories, their successes, about how they made a difference and how the trades made a difference in their lives. We've got the First Nations, métis and inuit sections set up one of the pavilions over where we're seeing some traditional skills, yeah, and modern interpretations of those. That's right. I mean, there's an awful lot that we can learn from our past. Uh, that's going to help to inform our future too.
Speaker 2:So, lots of ways there, and I, you know, might have hinted that you know canada might be you know, talking to some folks around, those around the possibility or the potential of uh inviting the world uh to come to canada and celebrate skills?
Speaker 1:yeah, and what about for the educators out there? You know, I I always tell people as an educator you have to attend a skills Like being a part of a national skills competition. Even just coming to check it out really changes your outlook on what you're doing. It can inspire you as an instructor or an educator. Sure, how can they become involved? Perhaps in mentorship programs, and I would say specifically, maybe in more the rural areas, the less traveled roads? How?
Speaker 2:do they get?
Speaker 1:involved.
Speaker 2:So one of the steps again, I mentioned the member organization. The 13 member organizations in all the provinces and territory reach out to that local chapter. And if you're an educator or a teacher in a school, whether that's the K-12 system or high school system, what have you say? Call them up, invite them in, give them some time in your class, learn from that. Uh, talk about bringing someone, a tradesperson, in. Yeah, I mean, you know those days of bring your parent to work and talk about you know what they do in the community.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I still love those. I mean we, we need more of those. My dad was a boiler maker at the mine. He could never take me to work.
Speaker 3:Well, you know, I knew what he did yeah but you know, bring him into the classroom talk about absolutely talk about what's needed in the community.
Speaker 2:Uh, you know the diversity of different occupations that are out there, the different paths to follow. Yes, we need artists. Yes, we need lawyers.
Speaker 1:Yes, we need poets, but we also need a tremendous diversity of occupations and people with skills and technological know-how well, and I think that in the new world that we're creating now, that the youth are creating now, there's a few things that they really value financial stability, not being in debt, you know, having um, secure work, which I think has shooken up in the last few years, and it has exposed how important these trades are, not as a you know, hey, someone's got to do it, but I want to make a career out of this, sure, and if you want to take charge and have mobility, uh, develop a career path and a trades path and a technology path, if you want to travel, absolutely any one of these careers presented here will help you to do that.
Speaker 2:Uh, you know, and you know we've touched a bit on the, the monetary rewards that are out there uh, because starting wage that these folks are going to attract is a heck of a lot higher than your typical standard wage, pensions and benefits and all those things. Pensions benefit, different mobility, the security, either, of an association the security of having the abilities that are in demand in the marketplace having the transferability of skills.
Speaker 2:It really is start here, go anywhere. That's right. We've used it as a tagline before of skills change lives, but they do. They do and they provide those paths and opportunities that you're not going to lose Once you become a welder.
Speaker 1:you're a welder. Yeah, I tried walking away twice, unsuccessfully. Yeah, and no regrets.
Speaker 2:And the path is going to be different for everybody. But but you know, heck, I know carpenters. That started, as you know, the guy you sweeping the floors. Next thing you know he's he's cutting boards. Next thing you know he's in an apprenticeship program. Next thing you know he's a carpenter out in the job site. A little while later he's a supervisor. A little while later he does a couple project management courses. Now he's doing an estimation stuff. Next thing I know he's doing a distance mba program. Well, now the guy is running an international engineering company and he builds stuff on three different continents. Yeah, but he's still a carpenter.
Speaker 1:That's right, that's right. But you know, and that path, that dream, is not out of reach for anybody. That's.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, I mean that's some of the paths that we need to talk about. Yeah, the potential, you know uh that, uh again one young lady that we we worked with a while ago that represented canada at the worlds in um uh, aircraft maintenance and technology right, I interviewed her last year fantastic yeah, she's fantastic so I met her last night. What are you up to?
Speaker 2:well, now apparently she's doing wing walking, yeah, and she's buying her own plane and she's like 26 or 25, you know, not only does she get to work on fighter jet engines during her day job, but now she's buying an airplane and now she's learning about wing walking and performing. I mean that that's wild. That's, that's pretty wild, yeah know. So if you're a young person, you're thinking about what do I want to be when I grow up, or what do I want to be next? So this is a great place to start and a great path that will take you places that you don't know. All right.
Speaker 1:Well, let's wrap this up. It's getting loud here. I'm getting out on a wing here. Yeah, all right. Well, thank you very much, uh, dr rubel, for being here with us. I very much appreciate all the work skills that I love being part of skills family and, uh, you know, is there anything you'd like to say in parting with the audience out there?
Speaker 2:well, max, thanks very much for the opportunity to talk with you today to discuss this. Out of the canadian welding bureau does a great job reaching out to schools and coast to coast to coast. I put my day job hat on at yukon university.
Speaker 1:I I know we're going to work together on a few things.
Speaker 2:Well, we already do work together and stuff uh not only with the, the folks in our apprenticeship uh side of things in our welding shop, but also in our in our stem yeah, our summer camp programs or after school stuff. So the work that you do to promote careers opportunities and welding it's great and I look forward to a long collaboration between the CWB and Skills for Years to come.
Speaker 1:Awesome, so do I. Thank you very much. We hope you enjoy the show.
Speaker 3:You've been listening to the CWB Association Welding Podcast with Max Cerone. If you enjoyed what you heard today, rate our podcast and visit us at cwbassociationorg to learn more. Feel free to contact us if you have any questions or suggestions on what you'd like to learn about in the future. Produced by the CWB Group and presented by Max Horn, this podcast serves to educate and connect the welding community. Please subscribe and thank you for listening.