The CWB Association Welding Podcast
The CWB Association Welding Podcast
Episode 226 with Ryan Donaghy and Max Ceron
The CWB Association had the privilege to attend the Skills Canada New Brunswick Provincial Competition in Saint John, NB. Join us as we bring you special episodes recorded in person to advocate for careers in skilled trades and technology across the country.
In this eye-opening conversation with Ryan Donaghy, Deputy Minister of Education and Early Childhood Development for New Brunswick, we uncover how this maritime province has quietly become a powerhouse in trades education and employment opportunities. Ryan shares candid insights about how the province is addressing neurodivergence in trades education, creating flexible learning pathways, and ensuring educational mobility so students can enter trades and potentially return to academia later.
Check out: https://www.skillscanadanb.com/
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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.
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Speaker 1:Hello and welcome to another edition of the CWB Association podcast. My name is Max Saron and, as always, we're traveling the country trying to find the best stories we can. This week we have been in sunny today, st John, new Brunswick, and we have been having so much fun with Skills Atlantic Out here supporting the welders and all the trades, the instructors, the trainers, the students and, of course, all the people that volunteer and work with us here through the week. I have with me Ryan Donaghy, who is the Deputy Minister of Education and Early Childhood Development for New Brunswick, and we know how important education is a part of this whole skills journey. How are you doing today, ryan?
Speaker 2:Fantastic. Thanks for having me, max, and we brought the sun for you.
Speaker 1:Thank you very much. I know I wasn't expecting too much because, well, it's spring in the Maritimes, I expect rain and I don't mind it, but it's beautiful today, absolutely.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:So let's talk a little bit about yourself. What is it, what is your position with the government and what is your role?
Speaker 2:So I'm the Deputy Minister of Education here in the province of New Brunswick in the Anglophone sector. So in New Brunswick the great work that Courtney is doing and the passion that we see from the students in all of the different competitions certainly fills my bucket on a beautiful Sunday day.
Speaker 1:Now have you had the chance to walk through and see the kids going today?
Speaker 2:Yes, I've been here for a couple hours. I did a quick walkthrough and I look forward to getting back out there as well.
Speaker 1:You know, yesterday was post-secondary and I saw the welding students this morning and they looked so nervous and I said to them you know, you don't look any more nervous than the older kids yesterday, so it's okay. It's okay to be nervous, but what a wonderful step they make in putting their necks out. You know to compete like this. What a wonderful step they make in putting their necks out. You know to compete like this.
Speaker 2:What a great experience Something that they certainly don't get in a class of 24 students being able to actually take a project from start to finish and compete against folks from around the province.
Speaker 1:Yeah, their peers.
Speaker 2:Yeah, there's nothing like it.
Speaker 1:Some are here for a first time, some of them have been here before and are ready. The instructors will network with other instructors, the trainers with other trainers and even you know the bosses with other bosses. It's kind of everyone is meeting people in the industry that perhaps they don't see every day or maybe once a year, but it's. You can start bouncing some ideas off the walls. I mean, in the last three days, the amount of conversations I've had here about you know how the CWB can help support New Brunswick, and well, we have supported.
Speaker 2:New Brunswick considerably. We'll talk about that certainly at some point.
Speaker 1:And uh, and you know, I just love the ideas, I love the, the new thoughts and like, hey, what about this or that?
Speaker 2:And it's, it's really refreshing the conversations that are happening in the hallway are probably just as important as the competitions that are happening in those classrooms, but the competitions they're learning just as much as they're competing, and the partnerships that are happening in the hallways is phenomenal to see. So for your role.
Speaker 1:you know, like, how did Ryan get to be in this job? You know it sounds like people sometimes don't get how people get into politics in the first place, and I'm sure you came in with lots of dreams.
Speaker 2:Sure. So firstly, in New Brunswick, our deputy ministers are not actually elected and political.
Speaker 1:So I have a minister, Claire Johnson.
Speaker 2:So I leave the politics to her. So I'm on the operations side of things, running the department, if you will. But my journey actually is 23 years with the province of New Brunswick, different roles growing through the system and with other departments. So I've only been with the Department of Education for two and a half years. Okay, those two and a half years as deputy, I was deputy minister of other departments prior to this.
Speaker 1:Okay, and all within the province of New Brunswick. Correct, and what was your education? What's your background?
Speaker 2:So I went to the University of New Brunswick. I have a BA with a major in political science.
Speaker 1:You have a poli-sci major, I'm a philosophy major. Ah, there you go.
Speaker 2:How did we get here? I don't know and my background is actually in communications, so I was a communications director for many years with the province of New Brunswick.
Speaker 1:Now, when you were coming up in this province, growing up as a kid, what was the attitude that you felt, or was trades on your radar?
Speaker 2:Great question. So, not surprisingly, through the 90s and early 2000s it was a lot more tech.
Speaker 1:Computer science, IT Exactly.
Speaker 2:And some of the trades were actually taken out of our schools at that point, so it's great to see them coming back. We created our own need because of that.
Speaker 1:That's right.
Speaker 2:So the foresight may not have been there, but they're coming back, and they're coming back with a vengeance, and we see it here today. Yeah.
Speaker 1:And that's a tricky game to play. Education is very much generally playing catch up, but we know in the education world that it should be the leader. It should be on the leading edge of the trend that's going to be coming. That's ideally. What you would want is to create the workforce for the upcoming need. You would want is to create the workforce for the upcoming need, whereas I agree with you, in the 90s and 2000s we were trying to create workers for a need that was already on the way out and we may have surplused ourselves in areas we didn't need. And now we're seeing some of the repercussions the skills gap, the age gap, the wage gap, all the gaps, right, right, and you know how do we start looking at resolving these issues?
Speaker 2:So it's a fine balance. Yeah, but the more we look at actually not just the need but the passion of the students, Right what do they want to do? I was talking to an individual with NBCC and he's taking in high school students into the community colleges and there's a multi, there's a. There are multiple benefits to that. Some figure out that this isn't for them that's as important as anything that is.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I don't want to do that, right yeah?
Speaker 2:and then others are figuring out this is their passion, this is where they're going for the rest of their lives, and others know that they want to do something in this area maybe not quite what they're going for the rest of their lives, and others know that they want to do something in this area, maybe not quite what they're doing today.
Speaker 2:So being able to go grab that passion when we look especially high school students, which is what we have in front of us if you can hook them and find their passion, man, does that ever make it interesting in their high school? If they don't have that, they're just going through the motions and that's okay too, and maybe their passion isn't in the trades. But for those that are, we are bringing more and more opportunities for those students to be able to explore those passions, hopefully get on a track to get a career, and the partnership that we have with Skills Canada, as well as with the community college and your association and other associations in this, uh, in the skills workforce, is something that's relatively new and expanding, and we're really excited about it.
Speaker 1:No, it is exciting and and at the end of the day, the kids don't know what they don't know, right. So if you don't create some awareness about what's available, it's not going to be on their radar. And it's like anybody with kids. You know that the screens are a problem, the TV is a problem. I mean, when I was young it was the video games were a problem. It's always something's a problem, but what the problem really is is that they're not doing what they actually enjoy, because when they're doing something that they enjoy, screens are not a problem anymore. They've forgotten how to ball it.
Speaker 2:I just had that conversation in the auto body shop and they mentioned 14 students that had come in and they were told go observe and figure out what you might want to do.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Well, all of a sudden, they're all in the corner on their phones. Well, all of a sudden, they're all in the corner on their phones. The next time they were in, they put them to work. They figured out whether they liked it or not, and a number of them were passionately involved in what was going on, so you have to do it.
Speaker 1:You have to do it.
Speaker 2:You have to get your hands dirty if you will, and I've been enjoying trying some of those trades myself. So apparently I need a little bit more work on hammering a nail because I bent it but, I, was pretty good with the roofing.
Speaker 1:Now, you know, when we talk about passion, I always find that that's a tricky statement because, as you know, as we get older, passions shift and I feel like that's something that in the trades, is so valuable. Important to understand is that there's transferable skills between all the trades that you. There is nothing wrong, and in fact myself being a dual red seal, now you know, having my passion shift mid-career was kind of the best thing that ever happened to me. So, you know, I see these young kids and you said you know, what am I going to be doing for the rest of your life? Don't worry about that. You got a long life ahead of you. Do what you enjoy now.
Speaker 1:If you're in the trades, any of the skilled trades you're going to have a job, you're going to make good money, you're going to have a pension, you're going to have the benefits and all those things. And then you know 10, 15 years, the ability to change it up Right, you know what I mean. You can come teach, that's right. You can do all the different things that are out there and that's okay and that's wonderful about the trades I went to university. Changing directions in academia is trying to turn a ship in the dark Like it's a hard.
Speaker 2:Unless you do it three weeks in. I tried to be a dentist. It didn't quite work out.
Speaker 1:I actually did about a full semester of computer science because everyone told me to do computer science, because it was that time, it was that time and I was like about two months into it I was like this is really boring, like I can't see myself doing this for the rest of my life. Now for yourself, you know, when you're looking at it within your role, are you looking to support programs, create programs? You know what? What is it that is kind of the focus.
Speaker 2:So we've done a little bit of both. Uh, the supporting the programs obviously is the easier part. Uh, because they're already established, they already have a track record and you want to go and support those. Our budgets recently have money for consumables, for example. Wow, we are supporting the trades.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:We're putting trades back into some of the middle schools that had lost it. We have trades in all of the high schools, but we're continuing to expand those as well. And then new partnerships. We have the Centers of excellence here in New Brunswick great partnerships. We have the welding trailer, which was a great partnership that we see the benefits of all the time. Uh, so we just want to keep promoting and doing what is working and, to your point, getting in on the cutting edge of that new opportunity is really important.
Speaker 2:It is, yeah, it's a bit of a risk. It's a bit innovative. But what an opportunity. So of course that brings up all kinds of things around technology and AI Automation.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 2:And we can't be afraid to jump in and just do it cautiously, yeah, yeah yeah, figure out where you want to go and where you don't. Yeah, but that's what we're grappling with in the education world in Canada and around the world. So something your listeners probably don't know we have schools around the world that deliver our curriculum, so I get to see some of those countries and how they're responding to some of these very things.
Speaker 1:Yeah. Uh, and and how, how, how they can feed back on it and how it works. Yeah, absolutely All the similarities and the differences, right Right Now, in terms of these collaborations. You know, at the CWB, we are obviously always looking to to support our own industry. It's, it's, it's a battle of self-preservation right.
Speaker 1:We want more welders to enter the workforce, because those welders are what prop up our society in terms of the trade and it's the cyclical nature. One of the things that we've been trying to do that has been always something a hard battle, and I know it is within provinces as well is getting private industry to buy in, getting private industry to be that third partner or second partner or fourth partner, whatever it is, and say you know what?
Speaker 1:you're the ones that need the trades people At some point. Is there a level of responsibility for you to invest into perhaps some of these programs? What's your thoughts on that?
Speaker 2:So we have a few different avenues that that can happen. So we have the Centers of Excellence, which will actually sign private sector partners, where there's either a monetary component or doing some type of initiative with a number of schools, or online, depending on what it is. So we work with industry to figure out how best to make that work. We also have lots of opportunities where students are, uh, going into the workplace through a co-op, for example, uh, and we want more of that because it's that hands-on learning that we very much promote. Uh, and there's a dual benefit there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, the companies basically get to cherry pick. There is nothing wrong with that, like I mean, that's why we have NHL drafts.
Speaker 2:That's right. You get to test drive the car. That's right, yeah.
Speaker 1:Now, in terms of you know, the industry stepping up out here in New Brunswick, something I've learned this week which I've loved. This is why I do these things in the communications, the podcasts I'm having. I guess, to back story it, I'm from the West right, I live in, I grew up in, regina, western industry. Okay, in the West we've always had this false and I'll say it now this false idea that there isn't work in the Maritimes and that the reason we have so many travel cards and trades people come from the Maritimes to the West to work is because there was none here. And I'm learning now, and I have learned this week, that that's erroneous. That's not true. There's tons of work. I've been shown this week companies building projects, construction projects, manufacturing plants that are booming. I heard just the UA has something like 2 million man hours ahead of them and it's like wow, like I had no idea.
Speaker 2:So we're in St John. There's lots of industry, there's lots of industry, there's lots of jobs, there's lots going on. We have the port.
Speaker 1:That has all kinds of the port is growing exponentially here in St John I saw that they're rebuilding a part of it for cruise ships and stuff. Yes, exactly.
Speaker 2:So certainly a falsehood. There are opportunities here. There are opportunities for New Brunswick students to get jobs in that area, to go to college and get their Red Seal. There are opportunities for folks around the country to come to New Brunswick, and have we ever seen a lot of that happening? Since the pandemic, our population has been increasing exponentially.
Speaker 1:It means some pressure in the education system, the hidden gem of Canada here, that's right.
Speaker 2:So I'd much prefer to manage growth than decline, and we've been doing that. And the more students we have, the more opportunities that we can give them in some of these areas, and it's been fantastic.
Speaker 1:And in terms of that growth. You know, for example, this morning I went and talked to the students going into the welding competition. There was 15 students in the room representing 14 different high schools and I thought how is there even 14 high schools with welding shops in New Brunswick? That's a lot for a small province. And then the one instructor says, oh, there's probably 30. Yeah, and I was like what the heck? Like I mean out in the West we're so proud of our trades programs and we should be like I mean we got great apprenticeship programs, but I don't think we got kind of that kind of representation Like that's magnificent.
Speaker 2:So each high school looks at what what they can offer uh, either because of equipment, because of space or because of what the students would want to do Uh what the students would want to do Uh, and in different parts of the province they have uh their own unique uh opportunity in the skills trades Uh. But yeah, welding is seen uh throughout the province. We've actually increased 276% of students taking welding in six years.
Speaker 1:That's amazing and I I've been coming here for conferences for a while. I was in here for Skills Canada in 2019. You know, I've been seeing kind of the growth of the Maritimes as kind of an outsider and I've really been impressed with some of the centers of excellence, as I was at the grand opening of the Moncton one and yeah, I was and it's blowing me away these investments and they're multiple partner investments right. No one's doing it alone.
Speaker 2:Right and I just want to mention. You mentioned 15 students here today. They come from 224 students regionally who competed in welding Wow. So what an opportunity, and I've heard a story of a student whose high school was not offering welding found an opportunity with the private sector and has been working with that private sector partner and she's here today.
Speaker 1:That's amazing. So like we're talking high school kids who got jobs already laid out for them.
Speaker 2:Absolutely.
Speaker 1:That's wow.
Speaker 2:Right, if you're good and you test drove that car, you hire that person, right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely. Well, this is a great time to take a quick break here and we're going to slide into uh commercials from our advertisers and in the second half, when we get back, I want to talk about the skills program itself here in new brunswick and how it's grown it's really exploded in the last few years and and the tie-ins to the education system here so wonderful we'll be right back here after these commercials looking for top quality welding machines and accessories, look no further than CannaWeld.
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Speaker 2:I've had lots, of uh, different interpretations of that one.
Speaker 1:All right. So before the break we were just talking about the growth of the welding programs and, I think, to skilled trades in general out here in New Brunswick. In terms of skills, how's that correlation been going with skills Like? Is it causation or correlation? Did skills make it grow or did the growth make skills grow?
Speaker 2:I'll let Courtney speak to that piece. But certainly it is growing in both sides of that, uh, that equation. What a great partnership. Uh, the, actually the consumables that are going to be left over at this event are going to come back to the high school.
Speaker 1:That's right. I just had the, actually the high school teacher. I met her. She's like all these things are coming to my school and I was like awesome. I think we'll try to move them around just a little bit I think she said the machines or some of the machines.
Speaker 2:But nonetheless the fact that there is that partnership between skills and the education system, between the private sector and the associations and the education system. What an opportunity to give some of those experiences to the students but also to create that pipeline pardon the pun into the skills trades.
Speaker 1:Well, speaking of pipeline, we've got one of the biggest refineries in North America right outside our window here.
Speaker 2:Yes, we do.
Speaker 1:And I come from a refinery town too, in Regina, so I know the needs that just one, just one industry like that can create. There is hundreds of jobs on site and thousands of jobs in the periphery just to keep that plant running right.
Speaker 2:Absolutely.
Speaker 1:And when you have things like that, you're not even counting the pulp mills, the ocean travel, the marine work, the maintenance. Then you got the unions and the construction. It's just seems like it's all green lights around here. What an opportunity or what a place to host a skills competition but, in St John, new Brunswick. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Certainly we could do it in many of the communities around the province. But, as you say, having that out the window, certainly it's not hard to see that there are opportunities right here.
Speaker 1:Right Now I want to throw a hardball at one at you, okay, sure. So one of the things that comes up in education often in terms of the trades and our future is the changing dynamic of the students themselves. We're seeing a lot more neurodivergence and understanding of the neurodivergence and needs within our students. The different type of accommodations and needs that the schools have created to help our students get you know through school and have a successful journey in high school. The trades have always been a very safe space for the neurodivergent. It's something that fits in well. If you want to hyper-focus weld, you know you want to work with your hands. We got the type of trades for you Right, but how can you know both ministries and private industries help after high school into the college systems, into the workforce? That's something that I feel like we're working on, but it's going to be tricky and I think it's important that we get ahead of that to see how we can accommodate our workforce into the future.
Speaker 2:So great question and it's something that we do grapple with, but we are talking with the college all the time about how we can support those students.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Giving them the skills-based training, giving them the pipeline into the college. So part of our partnership is you can do some of your your hours and some of your courses in high school. What was the program called? I just met the gentleman Something H.
Speaker 1:I apologize. Yeah, we'll find it.
Speaker 2:The ability to do some of that and create that pipeline into the community college. What an opportunity. Absolutely, and it's a pipeline for them, obviously yeah. Uh, but a benefit for that student which is what I care about as the deputy of education. Yeah, um, so the it's about finding what that career path is.
Speaker 2:Uh, and we've changed actually in New Brunswick the way we the the high school, so it's about finding what that career path is and we've changed actually in New Brunswick the way we, the high school philosophy, and we know that that university path that everybody was supposed to be on in the 90s and 2000s isn't for everybody. There is a path into the college and skills trades. The college, uh, and skills trades world, yeah, and what a growing opportunity that is here in the province of New Brunswick. Uh, we, we mentioned it in some of the numbers earlier.
Speaker 2:Um and other uh outside of that. Just learning those skills is going to be a benefit to you for the rest of your life. Yeah, on the daily, absolutely so, uh, giving those opportunities to those opportunities to those students is something that I'm clearly passionate about, and the partnership that we have with Skills is just giving even more opportunity to those students.
Speaker 1:Well, and we've learned at the CWB over the last few years. We've really been tracking the opportunities to come into the trades, succeed in the trades and establish a life, a career and then return to academia perhaps at a later date, because not all of us are ready for university at 18. And some of us maybe never want to go, but some of us maybe do, but later. You know like, and I feel like it's been too rigid of a system for too long, where there needs to be that flexibility, that educational mobility, let's say, to be able to go into a trade, establish a career, then maybe go try something else, but you have those acquired skills that are transferable to so many things.
Speaker 2:And now universities have caught up a little bit, where they'll give some credit for that Absolutely yeah, similarly a Red Seal that wants to come teach in our system. Who wants to get a BED? That's possible now too.
Speaker 1:I just heard about that today, Cause in Saskatchewan they have a similar program as well. Um, because as a Red Seal welder, I went to go teach at the college but I didn't have a bachelor's of education. So it was like you know, but it was a two year program. It's not too late, Right? No, no, you know, I think about it.
Speaker 2:I think about it.
Speaker 1:When I retire, I think I'll probably be one of those people that goes to university forever. There you go, because I think it'd be fun, but there are opportunities to to not even just enter the trades but then flourish through the trades into kind of any branch you want to go down.
Speaker 2:Right, right, the opportunities really are endless. They're throughout the country as well. It's not like you're pigeonholing yourself to absolutely being in one place. Right there are opportunities across the country and throughout the world. That's yeah. Some of my family members are in mines in Northern Ontario right now.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And living in New Brunswick, so what an opportunity, and when they decide that they want to be closer to home, there's opportunities right outside this window.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I was talking to the students yesterday and I said you know who here knows about the CWB and all they all put their hands up. It's like, yeah, you know, we're the codes people for the work that you do. And I said you realize, when you graduate college and you have these CWB tickets and you have this certificate, that you can travel to over 80 countries with those certifications and make money there's. You know, if you want to go work a year in Australia, you can like I mean.
Speaker 1:These kinds of opportunities are not that we want anyone to leave.
Speaker 2:Of course not.
Speaker 1:Go visit, come back.
Speaker 2:I'll gladly bring those from other provinces to New Brunswick who don't don't want them leaving New Brunswick, though.
Speaker 1:But just that, that openness of openness of possibilities. And I mean when we're talking about skills, these students I always want to call them kids, but they're I mean they're students these students are already putting their necks out there. They're already taking that forward step of taking the risk. I heard so many of the students say you know, I'm not here to win or I'm not here to do, you already won. Right, you already walked in the door.
Speaker 1:What an experience they're getting All the all the kids that didn't try. They're the ones that didn't get anything out of it, but the ones that tried it. It's not a win or lose thing.
Speaker 2:And, and I think uh skills and and Courtney Donovan, they're going which is this thing's going to grow even more. Yeah, the passion that we see from those students, the growth that we've seen in the regional competitions, the growth that we've seen in each of the individual trades. We are on the cusp of having some really, really fun times at skills competitions and some of these kids are going to nationals.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely so. What an opportunity. I was already telling them, I'll see you in Regina.
Speaker 2:That's right.
Speaker 1:Because that's an experience for people to be a part of, not just the trade they're in but the community that that trade has with it. Because that's something that the trades have always been so great about is they really develop their own communities of people and the networking within them, the conferences, the learning opportunities.
Speaker 2:you know, the professional learning abilities it's never ending the number of previous competitors that are here assisting. Yeah, to just help mentor you can see that mentorship, the community that they've built. Yeah, it's alive and well, right here.
Speaker 1:Yeah, now for for yourself. What would you love to see in terms of the skills growth you know, aside from, of course, new Brunswick getting on all the podiums and winning all the gold medals?
Speaker 2:but Well, it's actually fun to even walk into some of these classrooms and seeing the banners from previous years. We're in a community college, so we have some of those in the high schools as well. But certainly it's not just about that. It's about the experience that these students are getting. They've, obviously they're perfecting their craft and now they get to come and test themselves and push themselves. So for me it's continuing to grow the opportunities for these students, and then it's for them to grab it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I guess, and having the awareness of what those opportunities are right, Because there always has to be a little bit of a frontal education to you. Can't just lay out opportunities, it doesn't mean anything, right?
Speaker 2:And watching it isn't enough. Yeah Right, you might get, you might pique your interest, but then you go off to other things.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:When you actually do it. That's where their face lights up and they might be hooked for life.
Speaker 1:That's right, you never truly understand how much you hate golf until you go golfing.
Speaker 2:I might be a golfer, but yeah, I love golfing.
Speaker 1:I love, but you don't see them get mad. That's right Now, in terms of you and your position as the Deputy Minister of Education. What can you do to support skills and these type of journeys?
Speaker 2:It was really important for me to be here. I got the invite and it was an absolutely I would Well you can't say no to Courtney, good luck.
Speaker 1:Well, that's true, uh, we weren't planning on being in Atlantic Canada. She called me and she said you're going to be here. I said okay.
Speaker 2:Well, fantastic, glad you're here, Glad I'm on your podcast, uh, but yeah, uh, it it's about promoting it, it's about securing funding and partnerships for it, and that's what I'm working on.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean we're a silver sponsor. We are very proud to sponsor and actually like we have a big soft spot in our hearts for Maritimes. New Brunswick has been a wonderful partner for the CWB. Our curriculum is almost in all your high schools.
Speaker 1:That's right and and it's something that we feel like I said before it's a self-preservation of the industry, because we don't want the welders to do a poor job and have bad careers. We want them to have great careers and make buckets of money and have all those wonderful things and we want them to stay. That's another thing, like we don't want them to think that they got to fly to another place or leave the country in order to make money and have a good career. It can be in your own backyard if you want it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and some of those students that are welding right now are going to find jobs right here in New Brunswick either for the summer if they're not in grade 12 yet or going through their apprenticeship. So the partnerships that we have with the private sector is really invaluable in creating that opportunity.
Speaker 2:So they get to try them out as we talked about earlier, but, more importantly, those students get that hands-on experience, that real world experience. It's not the same doing it in the class as it is when you're, when you're in the shop, and it's not as fun. No, exactly.
Speaker 1:If you can't get hurt, it's not fun, right?
Speaker 2:Well, hopefully we don't have no injuries today.
Speaker 1:Okay, all right. Last couple of questions. You know there's a lot of moving parts, right, there's a lot of moving parts to this. There's economies that change. There's, you know, trends that change. We see lots of business coming in, but within that there's always businesses going out For your position. How do you keep your you know, finger on the wrist of trying to evaluate what's going to be the next thing that you need to be mindful of.
Speaker 2:So certainly working with partners across the country is very important. We meet as deputy ministers of education across the country. We're also looking at those global trends. It's not about what's happening just in our backyard, it's knowing what are those opportunities for our students coming in the future.
Speaker 1:So we don't want to have you can't sit on your hands Right and we don't want to have happen.
Speaker 2:What happened in the past, where you go, that's done. Yeah that's right. Well, that probably wasn't the best decision and we need to learn from that.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So, while we'll continue to maneuver and we'll have more or less of of certain things, it's about making sure that we give as many opportunities to those students as we can, based on where those job opportunities are and where the passion of those students are. So it's really a school by school conversation. Yeah, uh, as opposed, that's a lot of conversations.
Speaker 2:It's a lot of conversations, uh, but they, they have some autonomy on what they deliver uh, at the local and district level as opposed to at the provincial level, and then at at when we're looking globally, uh, it's about identifying those trends, dipping our toe in sometimes or going all in is the conversation and the decision that needs to be made.
Speaker 1:And the relationship between Skills New Brunswick and the education department. You know how does that work here.
Speaker 2:So I will give a very tangible example actually. So we're a smaller province.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So that allows us to be quite nimble and it allows us to have some pretty good relationships with our partners. So one day Courtney was in my office and mentioned that this event is usually held on the weekend and because it's held on the weekend, try a trade the school's coming in you kind of lose that opportunity Just down the street. I had just finished meeting with the four superintendents and I said, well, why don't we talk to them about potentially changing that? So we drove down the street on a snowy day, met with the four superintendents that I hauled out of a meeting.
Speaker 2:And here we are on a Thursday.
Speaker 1:On a Thursday, yeah.
Speaker 2:With buildings full of students.
Speaker 1:Yeah, full houses all around, yeah.
Speaker 2:So our partnership, our relationship is very strong and that's kudos to the leadership on the ground, the foresight and the vision to grow this, and we're seeing it right in front of us?
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's right. And last question I know you got a very, very busy day, I guess, from our point of view. Now me asking, as a sponsor, a supporter, a funder to many of the programs in this province, what is it that we can do better? What is it that the province would ask of us in general, the people that you're looking to seek to ask for funding to, to make the partnerships? You know what's, what's the pitch to us that we can do better or we can bring in for you?
Speaker 2:So, firstly, thank you. Without the partnerships we don't have these events. Without the partnerships we don't have all the opportunities that we have in our school. So a huge thank you to your association, as well as all of the skills, trades associations and private sector partners that we have. I won't go down the list because I'll miss somebody, so I can't possibly do that, but a huge thank you.
Speaker 2:I can't possibly do that, but a huge thank you. As far as what you can do, you're on the cutting edge. You know what is next. So being able to have those conversations so that we don't miss out on an opportunity. But of course, I always want more opportunities in what we're doing right now. I want to grow what we're doing right now. So anyone who has dipped their toe in with our centers of excellence or or our partnerships, let's go all in, uh and happy to have those conversations.
Speaker 1:No, I love that, and it is. It is true, like we collect so much data. Right, we got our fingerprint on over 60,000 welders across this country, and you know. Then the next question is what do you do with the data?
Speaker 2:Right, it's got to go somewhere so many of our organizations are so data rich yeah and analysis poor. Yeah, so we need to start analyzing that data and figuring out what's next.
Speaker 1:That's exactly what we're trying to do now and these partnerships actually help us, I guess. Put a face to the data saying, you know, like these are the trends, and then you have, you know, hundreds, hundreds of students coming through. This data is relative and important to them because that's their future, absolutely.
Speaker 2:Right and the the. The future is now for these students who are here competing, and I want to wish them all luck as they, as they finish off this afternoon. They're going to be up on the podium and some of them are going to join you in, regina. Yeah, I can't wait.
Speaker 1:It's going to join you in, regina. Yeah, I can't wait. It's going to be a good time. I promise to host them. Well, excellent, all right. Well, thank you so much. Is there anything you'd like to say in terms of, perhaps, how people can get information about what's going on in New Brunswick? This is listened to around the world. There's anything you'd like to promote?
Speaker 2:Absolutely so, thanks. Thanks for the opportunity to participate on your podcast. Skills Canada I'll make the plug for them and Skills New Brunswick. But our Centers of Excellence here in New Brunswick, it's a model that's really interesting to a lot of jurisdictions and we have a world-class education system right here in New Brunswick. It's recognized in so many countries. There's so many amazing things happening in our schools. It's not all roses. I don't want to pretend that.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:But the work that these students that are in this building today have put into mastering their craft is because of the teachers and mentors and those who came before them, and I just want to thank everyone. It's an absolute pleasure for me, an honor for me, to be a participant of the teachers and mentors and those who came before them, and I just want to thank everyone.
Speaker 1:It's an absolute pleasure for me, an honour for me to be a participant in this event today.
Speaker 2:That's awesome. Thank you so much for coming today.
Speaker 1:Appreciate it All right, and for all the people that have been following the podcast, thanks so much. We are not done here in Atlantic Canada. I got a couple more coming today, so make sure you check them all, because there has been so many wonderful lessons learned about what's happening out here in New Brunswick and the wonderful things that are happening in the maritime. So check out this podcast, check out the rest of them from this series, and I'll catch you at the next one. We hope you enjoy the show.
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