The CWB Association Welding Podcast
The CWB Association Welding Podcast
Episode 227 with Andrew Clarke 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.
Today's guest, Andrew Clarke, Department Head for Skilled Trades at Harbour View High School in New Brunswick, reveals the hidden challenges and triumphs of preparing the next generation of welders and metalworkers. With no formal trades background but a lifetime of hands-on experience, Andrew represents the reality of trades education in many Canadian schools – dedicated teachers learning alongside their students while building programs that inspire young people to consider welding as a viable career path.
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. Today we have a really cool guest welding podcast. The show is about to begin.
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Speaker 1:Hello and welcome to another edition of the cWB Association podcast. My name is Max Duran and we are here in beautiful and sunny today. New Brunswick, st John, is the city we're in and we've been having so much fun all week here with Skills Atlantic. These competitions are so much fun. It's part of our job at CWB to support, but it's probably one of the best parts of our jobs is to be here supporting the students, and today's students are going to be all from high schools, so secondary students. My guest today is Andrew Clark, who is a skilled trades teacher for the Harborview High School out here and we've talked many times before. We've known each other for a bit now. Andrew, welcome to the show. Thanks for having me. It's great to be here. Yeah, so you said you listen to the show. Thanks for having me, it's great to be here.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so you said you listen to the show, do you really? Yep, actually, I have next week's episode, last week's episode, queued up on my next podcast. Oh well, thank you very much.
Speaker 1:I appreciate it. I do wonder if I have more than one or two listeners.
Speaker 3:Oh, you got lots, you got lots.
Speaker 1:So tell me a little bit about your position. What do you do here? Uh like, at first for the high school for high school.
Speaker 3:Uh, currently I am the SPR, which is the department head for the skilled trades, skilled trades, technology and arts, or the tech department, so I have all the creatives, which is fantastic, I think. Yeah, that sounds wonderful, oh it's, I've got the best job. I get paid to play with power tools, paid to play with fire.
Speaker 1:Yeah, now your high school. What size is it Like? Is it a? Is it a big school for your area, for?
Speaker 3:our area, I would say we're one of the bigger ones. Now we're about 1100 students.
Speaker 1:Oh wow, that's a big high school yeah.
Speaker 3:I think it's a great size.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Because it's big enough that we can offer all kinds of programs to all kinds of students, and our school motto is invent yourself here. So the kids have a chance to really. Oh, I might be an AP psych today in this class, but this afternoon I'm going to be in welding Right, or I might be in cabinet making, or you get to have a little bit of taste of everything.
Speaker 1:When you're too small, you kind of miss out on funding too. Oh yeah, right.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and well, sometimes funding's the issue, but especially in New Brunswick, where we have smaller schools here, right, so it's just population We've got. The size of the province is less than Edmonton, so it's like you can't have the same funding for a province like that. But we do some pretty cool stuff and I think, personally I think we have one of the better programs around. But that's just me. Yeah, well, I mean, it's your baby, right, it's your baby.
Speaker 1:It's my baby. So you know for yourself and for the people listening. How do you as a teacher because you probably went to college and education, Yep, how did you end up being in charge of this type of work? Because this is kind of a disconnect that we see across Canada which I think you've bridged well, but many teachers struggle with, you know, being a teacher and getting put into trades programs.
Speaker 3:Well, for me, my when I started teaching way back 20 years ago, my first long-term supply was actually a social studies class. Okay, I'm actually social studies trained, as my ed degree says. Okay, you can't get a tech teacher degree.
Speaker 1:No, it's not a thing Other than BC, I think. I think.
Speaker 3:BC is the only place, which I think it's fantastic, but every place needs it, because we need tech teachers. Yeah, that's right, right, and to me it's I learned from skill from growing up yeah, I had a hammer in my hand, like in your family. Yeah, from growing up.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I had a hammer in my hand, like in your family. Yeah.
Speaker 3:I had a hammer in my hand at four years old.
Speaker 1:Yeah, driving nails. Yeah Right, do you have family? That was, oh yeah, like in the trades.
Speaker 3:My grandfather was a carpenter. He retired as building inspector from the city of Calgary.
Speaker 1:Okay, eons ago.
Speaker 3:Yeah, like he went up to the trades there. Uh, my grandfather was in agriculture, my uncles multiple uncles in trades. Yeah, uh, uncles and cousins welding, uh, commercial refrigeration, things like that.
Speaker 1:So, so a little bit of everything around. Oh yeah, so around the supper table it was talking about, you know, work and what's going on and at Masters Red Seal, same thing.
Speaker 3:We didn't care.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:You got education you were smart yeah you're smart, so me it's like I got me. Yeah, so I went in my summer jobs working in the trades. Yeah, I came back from university with more money in my summer jobs than my classmates had all year I was like guys come on yeah, what are you doing?
Speaker 1:yeah, like I'm, and.
Speaker 3:I've got saleable skills.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3:So I can go out and I can find work, no matter what so?
Speaker 1:you go to university to get your degree. You're majoring in a social science world. You get out to the school district. You know, as a young teacher, you're going to take whatever job comes up. Really Right, you get out there. My up, really right, you get out there. My daughter's a teacher. I've seen the process. And then you know, someone taps you on the shoulder and said, hey, what about these programs?
Speaker 3:Well, for me, like when I had that social studies job, it was like two months because the guy, the gentleman, had a heart attack and had to retire.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 3:Not a big deal.
Speaker 1:Like the long retirement type of heart attack. Well, no, no.
Speaker 3:Fortunately not, but it was like the long sleep. It wasn't the long sleep, but it was. Like you know, it's time to yeah, to pull off, time to back off, because the next one will kill them.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, no worries.
Speaker 3:And then I spent another year supplying and the shop teacher in the junior high was teaching. I was supplying, I was retiring. I said you'd be really good at this because you already have these skills and things like that.
Speaker 2:You're comfortable with it? Yeah.
Speaker 3:And we've seen you what you can do with the things and we've seen what you can do with your hands. So I went okay, so I got this job. He went are you retired? And I was like, because nobody else had applied, I went well, do I really want to do that?
Speaker 1:I was like but I don't feel like it's a big stretch to get from the social sciences to the trades.
Speaker 3:No, and for me, though, also the same time, I was also a coach. Yeah, I was coaching swimming, Right, so I coached swimming at every level for 24 years before I retired, and it was like going to the skilled trades to teach the skills.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's just like coaching. Yeah, like coaching. Yeah it is. So it was a real short bridge. The dynamics between sports and the steel trades are very, very similar.
Speaker 3:It comes up on the podcast a lot, yeah, and for me, it's like having that background really made teaching, made me a better teacher.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so, and then getting in is like, how is it in terms of support for you? You know, cause, like you're, you're, you're in a position where you understand the tools, you get it. Yeah, the guy says he's going to retire. You kind of come in, they have books of curriculum for you and it's go.
Speaker 3:When he retired, it was bye Right.
Speaker 1:So like how, how were you supported into that transition and do you think?
Speaker 3:He helped a little bit with some things said yeah that's what you do, things like that, and we went through some things and then he left and it was my show and I went. Okay, I was fortunate because at that time I was actually in alberta, because I'm actually from alberta originally and I was. They had some pd sessions offered through their summer programs. I did that, yeah, and every time that came I would always do something like that. It's any, any PD I could always find. I always chased yeah. Anything skills-based, I always chased yeah. So started there and then I actually moved to a high school.
Speaker 3:Yeah, in a different community and spent five years there yeah, five years. Really enjoyed it and met my wife, who's from here. Okay, that's what happened. I met my wife who was from here. We actually met at a wedding there and it was like our relationship started off. I'm like, well, I've got 10 minutes. I got to get back to school. Yeah 90 minutes later it's like oh, I really got to get back.
Speaker 1:It was the day before school started.
Speaker 3:So that's how it started. And then we got married and we went there for a year and realized partway through the year we just looked at her we had some family things that come up. I'm like you know what, honey, let's go back east, let's go back east, I can make a go, no matter what. Yeah.
Speaker 1:And just yeah, family things we just had to get home for and not a big deal.
Speaker 1:So that's interesting because you got kind of the tale of two provinces then in terms of your history, what would be, I guess your you know your biggest differences, you see, between the what you experienced for the education system in alberta versus here. You know there is a lot of conversation in the atlantic provinces of the west versus east kind of thing, right, and as a wner we are woefully ignorant of what happens in the East, right. I'm trying to help bridge that because I think there's untapped resources out here.
Speaker 3:Yeah it's amazing resources out here Of all kinds, yeah.
Speaker 1:So what was your perspective with that?
Speaker 3:Well, when I first got here I was a bit arrogant, a bit cocky and things like that A burden. Okay.
Speaker 2:I will own that one. Yeah, I will own that one.
Speaker 3:I'll own that one. I'll take it. And what I realized is here in the Maritimes is these social structures are much better developed for society and to help support everything than they are out West. It's much more feast and famine out West. Yes, yeah For society and to help support everything. Yeah, then they are out West.
Speaker 1:It's much more feast and famine out West.
Speaker 3:Yes, yeah, and when it's feast, it's me, me, me, me me when it's famine. It's like help, help, help, help help, yeah, we're here it's.
Speaker 1:Community.
Speaker 3:It's community and, yes, may not grow as fast, but we're always growing. Yeah, and for me, when I moved here, I went this is a land of opportunity and it truly is Like I moved here without a job.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Well, and that's a. That's one of the barriers that I've been talking about all week is this idea that we have in the west that there's no work out here oh, there's tons of work because from our perspective it's we get the east coasters coming in for shutdowns, coming in in the summer to work, and we have this thought that, oh, they must come out because there's no work out no no, there's work, and that's not the thing.
Speaker 1:What I've learned over the last couple days of interviewing people here in saint, in saint john, is that there's lots of work out here. It just maybe they could make uh, more. Yeah, and it was just a. You know, there's lots of work out here, it's just maybe they could make more, yeah. And it was just you know there's opportunities to perhaps make a higher wage for a period of time out west, but that's it. It's not because there isn't something here.
Speaker 3:You make it the higher wage, but the cost of living.
Speaker 1:Oh yes.
Speaker 3:That's the other thing that because when I was out west and we were moving back here, I had sold. I had a mini home they call it a mobile home. Right yeah, it was on private property but for what I sold it for was more than the value of the house I'm in now, which is on two acres. Now the value of my house has, of course, gone up, but it's like at the time.
Speaker 2:it was like how is this so cheap Like?
Speaker 3:what I could buy here was like it was a mini home there, but I could buy it a two story on three acres here for the same price. I was like what?
Speaker 1:Well, I've been looking at house prices around here lately. You know cause, as I get closer to retirement, it's like where would I like to have a place in Canada, you know what I mean.
Speaker 3:Like the. Well, you know what I'll say this the winter's here, I'll take any time Might have a little bit of shoveling, but big deal, oh, compared to what I got in Regina, you know minus 50. Oh yeah, like I don't think you guys get that Well everybody, the locals, the ones who are not familiar with the prairie cold yeah, Like the Arctic cold. Oh, it's cold, it's cold. That's only a minus 20. Yeah, what are you talking about? I don't have my winter coat on yet.
Speaker 1:I'm still in my fall coat, come on, yeah, so when you got out here, right, you got a job and did you go immediately into supporting the trades in education here, or did you kind of have to start all over?
Speaker 3:When I, when I got here, like I literally came here, I had a job interview here and I didn't get the job, for it was a skills trade teacher, okay I didn't get the job somebody else got and I I've met the guy since and he's he's a great guy to.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I've had lots of dealings with him, he's a great guy. But, um, for me it was like I came here I ended up with no job. So I was like, what do I do? Yeah, well, I got on the supply list. Took a little bit to get on there and then I spent a few years doing that, but at the time I was also working in the trades. Yeah, I got a skillset. Yeah, why not use it?
Speaker 3:So I was renovating houses, building decks, doing things, getting paychecks. You know, making money, yeah, and also coaching. And I showed up and I walked into a job yeah, coaching. I was just like oh, coaches are always needed You're looking. We were looking for a coach. Yeah, man timing.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Do you have time for an interview, like, are you guys looking for a coach? He said you got half an hour, yeah. Okay, yeah yeah, so that was good. But then I really got into the teaching stuff and I was able to get a. I actually started on a mat leave here. Okay, yeah, because you're in automotive.
Speaker 1:Oh automotive, cool Automotive. So you're sliding right into, like I went from woodworking yeah To automotive.
Speaker 3:I had some background in automotive already, so it was good because I'd done some of that Enough to not hurt yourself.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Well, but I had done enough experience either on the farm.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 3:Teaching it out somebody, and they couldn't find anybody. Of course, everybody's always looking for a red seal. Unfortunately, I don't have one. I'd love to get one, and I'm I'm still working towards it. You're trying to wheel and deal towards one. Well, no, I don't want to put work in. Yeah.
Speaker 3:I have no issue putting the work in and things like that, but same time as I'm always wanting to learn and grow my skill, because if I can get better skills, it benefits the students, right, right. So how can I do that? So that's what I did. I did the automotive thing and they came up with a welding PL. They're just starting to push the welding with the foundation, With the foundation yeah, with the foundation and it was fantastic, the school I was in actually got the first lab from the foundation menu there, nice and.
Speaker 3:I was like or one of the first labs and from the foundation menu there, Nice, and I was like or one of the first labs, and I was like nice, I got in there, you got a feel for it a bit and they did some more PL over the summer. Professional learning for those non-new friends, workers.
Speaker 1:Yeah, pd everywhere else, pd everywhere else.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah. So I got in that and I just dove in headfirst. When I, after that year, was up, I literally went from that school. It ended on the Monday in the middle of January end of. January, yeah, and the semester started, the next semester at Harborview. Okay, and Like with the welding program, or Actually that was a semester they were putting in the welding program, and at that point I had a couple yeah.
Speaker 1:Pack tickets. Right yeah, Just the basic Key class. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3:Just the basic Key class. Yeah, yeah, no one mig one stick.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but you know the process, yeah, I knew the process, I knew what it was.
Speaker 3:I kept always doing the things to improve it and they needed somebody. I could do it and I was always chasing it. I was growing it and I've just kept going and now we've got a whole, we've got a brand new booth there. Like I walked in there we had nothing and that was 2017. And when I came there as a foundation I can't remember her name, for the foundation at that point Retired.
Speaker 1:Oh, deb Deb, yeah, deb Ramites yeah.
Speaker 3:She showed up there with the provincial guy there and we had literally we weren't even turned the machines on yet. She said we've got a conference coming up here.
Speaker 2:We can get you on the list. We can go. I went fantastic.
Speaker 1:And that was Winnipeg that year. Oh yeah, that was a good year, yeah that was a good year.
Speaker 3:I remember you were talking about your trip to Ghana. Yeah, and I was like that was, and after that I'd gone to, and even the virtual ones, I was like never miss them again, cause I always walked out with something I could use the next day. Yeah, I could use the next month, I could use the next year. So those, those have been fantastic.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, they. They're a lot of fun to put on and I used to love attending yeah yeah Before, so you know yeah no, it's, it's been fun.
Speaker 1:And it's grow and grow and grow the program and grow what my skill base is, because if I can get better right, the kids are going to get better. Well, and that's some of the things that are happening now that we're seeing across the country is that there's kind of a understanding that, in order to teach the trades, it's not just as easy as hey, this is your assignment tomorrow, it's there needs to be some background there.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah like me and the other full-time. Well, we have two and a half positions at the school right now of skilled trades teachers. None of us have a red seal, but we're always looking at what can we do to improve our skills over, and we're always growing the programs because the kids have the interest. We want more, yeah, and we're spending long hours Like learning ourselves, learning ourselves and things like that.
Speaker 1:We want more, yeah, yeah, and we're spending long hours like I'm not Learning yourself, learning ourselves and things like that.
Speaker 3:But, like even my, the school culture, though, is kind of cool. In my school is 5 o'clock on a Friday, half the staff are still there.
Speaker 1:We're sticking around, yeah.
Speaker 3:We got a staff of 60 teachers. Yeah yeah, so like that's a lot. Yeah, we're 65 teachers and stuff like that, but like half the staff is still there on a Friday at five o'clock. What's that say?
Speaker 1:That's wild, right we're. I remember my kids when they were in school. It was like three o'clock on a Friday. It was a desert, yeah.
Speaker 1:Right, but no, it teachers even yeah, we're off doing sports or other activities for the school, so so for me, harbourview has been a fantastic fit now, in your opinion, like you know with your experience, if you could put it in a box, how or what would an instructor need to know that is getting put into a similar position? A teacher in a in a high school that they're like you're gonna be the shop teacher next semester. You know they may not have the comfort with tools, they may not have the background like you did, and I'm sure this happens all the time it does. Right. So how? How do we support or how can they be supported?
Speaker 3:Well, what I think should really happen is they should almost have a hybrid bridging time with somebody who is a good model, right Right, right. Who's good with the?
Speaker 1:tools. A mentor, a mentor, yeah.
Speaker 3:And maybe they're teaching one class by themselves or teaching a class together, co-teaching, or something like that, mm-hmm. So they can see the organization, so they see the classroom management, they can see what you have to do.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:To be evolving the things so you can do that and totally spread them out, kind of like how well, when teachers go through the program, we do a placement. Yeah yeah, skilled trades need their own placement, almost, yeah, like a separate placement plan, a separate placement plan.
Speaker 3:We've done, they've been trying some different things here in the province and I think they've been pretty successful. Yeah, I've been. I've what I've seen from them and what we've done with the participation of it. Those teachers, I think, have been good. But it's also then, what's that next step? Right, and it's also that continuous contact, things like that, and I've always tried now with me, cause I've been here long enough and I've got teachers who I'm always reaching out or they're reaching out to me. I was like you know what, what, what are you doing? This? The network, you know what, what are?
Speaker 3:you doing this, the network, the networking, and how do you keep that networking going with the things and with the other teachers and the newer teachers coming up Right, and it's I always try to make myself available to, and it doesn't have to be my school, it's the other schools too. It's how can you reach out and just keep that contact going, right, so how do you work out in this situation where you do things like this or I'm having this issues?
Speaker 3:yeah right, this is what my experience is yeah may or may not be good, but there's probably lots. That crosses over everywhere, right, and and it doesn't have to be specific to just welding, because, fortunately for me, I, I get to teach welding, yeah, and I'm also teaching machining. So it's like so you get a few flavors in there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I got a few flavors in there.
Speaker 3:I get to mix things up so but I've also done the cabinet making stuff before in previous lives in construction buildings. So it's like so if we have questions we can go back and forth, or if we can't go, maybe talk to this person or we can make those connections.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I remember when I was teaching at the college we'd get together for CanWeld, edcons and stuff like that, and one of the things that I often heard was a theme that there just isn't the funding in high school, you know, for, like for the college.
Speaker 1:We got, you know, a million dollars to run you know for for 120 students and and the steel just rolls in and the gases are just full and the filler metals are coming in when they're needed and uh, uh. And also when you hire a new instructor, we could fully support. Yeah, where it's like, like you said, like co-teaching, like there's a long training in process of teaching all the equipment, teaching the curriculum before you hand it off.
Speaker 3:That overlap is extremely expensive from a, from a taxpayer point of view it is, and that's something which that's why I give up my own volunteer time after hours, things like that, or I'll have the I don't mind coming in after hours to work with those teachers.
Speaker 1:But if only the money was there.
Speaker 3:It'd be nice if the money was there, but at the same time it's and I always talk to my principals about this- it says if you want a quality program, it's going to cost Right, right, and if you're budgeting us $3,000, I can go through that in a week.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I went to a high school and they said they had a $1,200 budget for the semester. Yeah, I was like what are you teaching them? Yeah, like that's four plates of 14 gauge. So I was like how do you, how do you get creative with the usage of things like that?
Speaker 3:and it's like you know what it you find ways, we find ways we do have a. What we do at the school is we do some different. Actually, the advanced kids I have is I actually have them do the skills national projects right or their capstone project so they at the end they get to take that home, they get to practice that out yeah, they practice it they get to do it and that's your final's like.
Speaker 3:But then they go well, and I also get them to price it out, yeah, of how much steel it is, and just for the steel alone, yeah, oh, so I pay this much money First semester. I get gloves and I get some other.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:Some PPE.
Speaker 3:Yeah, they get to keep that stuff, but then they also get to keep this project at the end and like Worth a couple hundred bucks. The steel alone is like a hundred dollars.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3:And they, but they already got gloves and some other things and then the hours they put into it. Yeah, yeah, and that's not including the consumables Right, and they go. Oh yeah, I don't mind paying this fee.
Speaker 1:Because I'm getting so much extra. Right, All right. So you know you're working with the program, You're teaching the kids. What evolution have you seen now? You said 20 years you've been in the game. Yeah 19 years since I graduated university. So, howard, what have you seen in changes, you know, even just specifically here, since you've gotten to the East Coast in curriculum in the way the trades are being taught. The East Coast in curriculum in the way the trades are being taught.
Speaker 3:I we're in New Brunswick. We've been in the midst of a curriculum refresh, which has been needed since some of our curriculum has been 20 or 30 years old. Ouch yeah, I'm sorry but we've got.
Speaker 1:my eldest stepson is younger than some of the curriculum I'm teaching. It's like If the person that wrote the textbook doesn't live anymore, maybe we need a new textbook.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's like come on, so the I will. The province has been really good about refreshing the curriculum in the last 10 years, which has been great and it's really helped reinvigorate the students Like our. Our programs are running at capacity. We have waiting lists for our programs in the schools and a lot of the other schools I'm hearing is we're in the same situation. Now, right, because that's good, right, that's what we want.
Speaker 1:That's right, right, that's the dream, everyone's wait list. I mean it's not great for the students on the wait list, but it means it's healthy.
Speaker 3:We need teachers, though now, so now we've got that cart and horse issue and that's the issue. And we want to get good quality teachers. Yes, the ideal would be to have a red seal, but why are the red seals going to? And in New Brunswick especially? They have to go back to school. They have to get an ed degree, which means they have to get an undergrad degree.
Speaker 1:You guys can't do an ed certificate out here. It has to be a degree, ouch.
Speaker 3:Yeah, degree, ouch, yeah, so it's out west, you asserts all you need to. Well, yeah, like for me, I went to the u of a and at the u of a, if you had a red seal, it was like a two-year after ed program you get your teaching, yeah, teaching degree. So anybody who's come to me here and said, listen, I got my red seal but five years. I can't afford that yeah, for sure, right to take a pay cut like no I'm not gonna go on the yeah.
Speaker 1:In Saskatchewan I went to teach with my Red Seal and they put me through a two-year program while I was working to get my but I was allowed to work as long as I maintain progress in this course. And then you get to, you know, and it's like so what can we do to help grow their programs?
Speaker 3:And I was like well, so if they've come to go to the. U of A. Yeah Right, if you can't. There's not many options here, but this is what you can do. Yeah, that'd be tough. They have had some programs in the past before my time where they've had some sort of bridging program and I think there's been some talk about it coming back, but it still needs to happen. But at the same time, we also have to have those right individuals.
Speaker 3:Because, you get those Red Seals who are burnt out, right? We don't want them.
Speaker 1:Or they're on the way out and they don't care.
Speaker 3:They've already checked out. They're on the way out. We don't want them because, as much as they may want to teach, thinking it's a backup, it's like no, you don't have that energy, you don't have that focus.
Speaker 1:It's no, you don't have that energy, you don't have that focus. It's a whole nother vibe like yeah, when I started teaching, I remember the program head, when he was interviewing me, was saying you don't come to teach for the money no you don't come to teach, you know for for any like yeah, you come for the lifestyle, because teaching is a lifestyle, it's something that you take home with you.
Speaker 1:You become in, you become emotionally invested with the kids, like these things happen and if you're not ready for the whole day, don't come right, and you might have some late nights.
Speaker 3:You might have some and, yeah, your pay may look good on paper, but you're not doing a nine to five. No, no. Nine to fives, don't exist and like I actually sent my principal an email yesterday, last night, then today was my payday, because I was here yesterday for the and we brought kids, we were at 200 kids for the triad trade. We also had 48 girls for the. Uh, young women in uh trades and technology conference panel here right.
Speaker 3:So we brought 240 kids from our school. Wow, they were fantastically behaved. The teachers who were with them. I had a chance to bounce around everybody. Everybody was engaged, asking really good questions things like that, Came back. Everybody was thrilled to be here. Great time coming back and went. This was a payday.
Speaker 2:I got paid yesterday.
Speaker 3:That's what's supposed to happen, right? Yeah, yeah, so, and today I got kids here competing in the skills competition too. We actually had a couple yesterday competing. Was there some in that room I was talking to this morning? Yeah, there's one in there. They look so nervous. Oh yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:But it's cute. It's cute. I love it.
Speaker 2:I love it.
Speaker 1:It fills my heart to see a 17-year-old, a 16-year-old, already focusing that. Well, I was nowhere responsible at 16 years old.
Speaker 3:We actually had a grade nine, yesterday competing Really yeah. Wow.
Speaker 1:That's amazing, right, yeah, so like we're.
Speaker 3:To me, it's we want to get the kids engaged and finding what they want to do. That's why our school models invent yourself here. Because they can do that, yeah Right, so they can do that. They can invent themselves, they can find out, they can try things that they can invent themselves, they can find out, they can try things. I got quite a few kids who get out and oh, I'm born into this I'm out of that and I ran into quite a few alumni actually yesterday.
Speaker 3:Just they're in school here doing different trades, yeah that's amazing.
Speaker 1:All right, well, we're at the time in the interview where we're gonna switch gears, so we're gonna take time for the commercials. Right now. I will be right back from some words from our advertisers on the cwb association podcast here with and Andrew Clark. Looking for top quality welding machines and accessories, look no further than CannaWeld. Based in Vaughan, ontario, cannaweld designs, assembles and tests premium welding machines right here in Canada. Our products are CSA certified and Ontario made approved, reflecting our unwavering commitment to excellence. Count on us for superior service that's faster and more efficient than market competitors. Whether you're in aerospace, education or any other precision welding industry, cannaweld has the perfect welding solution for you. Visit CannaWeldcom today to discover why professionals rely on CannaWeld for their welding needs. Cannaweld where precision meets reliability in welding. Enjoy peace of mind with our four-year warranty on most machines. Conditions do apply.
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Speaker 2:All right.
Speaker 1:So we talked about, you know, the journey of getting into teaching, becoming part of the skills family, the skilled trades. Now let's talk about skills competition. So, first of all, when did you get involved with the skills competition?
Speaker 3:My first touch with skills competitions was actually when I was at West and I actually brought a bus full from my school because I went to Hinton at the time.
Speaker 1:Okay, and.
Speaker 3:I brought it into the provincials so they could see what was going on, because we missed the regional deadline, things like that. Just go check it out. Check it out. I want to get the kids inspired. Just get them interested, and they hey, they got to go from Hinton to Edmonton for the day.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:They got to see the provincials and they came into the. Where is it? Oh the by. Northlands, Northlands, there right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, the exhibition grounds. Yeah, there, yeah.
Speaker 3:And it's like oh man, they're like wow all these different things, oh huge.
Speaker 2:They're like wow, all these things going on Like huge.
Speaker 1:I'm like wow, all these things. Go on Like wow, and all other students their own age, their own age yeah, Right.
Speaker 3:So it's not just you know a grown-up thing, no, it was like I want to do this and when I did that I was like to take those kids who were kind of rough on those edges and things like that.
Speaker 3:And they came back inspired and they had a focus what they wanted to do. And Just like that, and they came back inspired and they had a focus, what they wanted to do, and I was like awesome. So then when I was here and when I was actually teaching my first school here on the mat leave, they actually hosted provincials that year for skills Okay.
Speaker 1:And that was actually when, so it was right in your back door it was actually right in the shop too. Awesome.
Speaker 3:Because we had the automotive thing and it was right in the shop and it was actually at that point. Luke was the ED here for skills and that was when Courtney Donovan just came on that year, so that would have been like 2020.
Speaker 1:17. 2016. 2016. That long ago, oh my God. That long ago. Oh my God. I forget how old I am sometimes.
Speaker 3:So that was her first year, so she just started and I was yeah and there and boy, you know what got in there. Skills went great and pitched in wherever you could. We had some kids. We had a few kids competing because they're homeschool. Of course we're gonna get some kids in there because, yeah, yeah, it's in our backyard, so it's like great things like that.
Speaker 3:Then I moved to harbourview and was like skills competitions what's that guys we got to get involved as like, because, like, yeah, after that 2016, when we host provincials, it was like I'm hooked.
Speaker 3:Yeah, oh, for sure oh yeah, this, this, this. I can see this as where we need to be directing our energy, yeah, like a future state, as, because not only that, not only do they connect easier with post-secondary and industry right, and it's that bridging that gap there with the schools and stuff is then we can adjust what we need to do as teachers Right To help support industry and be in line with everybody and post-secondary?
Speaker 3:Yeah, because I was asked. The post-secondary and the industry is what can we do better? Get our kids prepared for you? To get your kids prepared for you in whatever roles you guys need. It used to be well get them to read a tape measure.
Speaker 2:We can do that in a day.
Speaker 3:Which one do you want? Metric Imperial, we can do it both. We'll even get you on the Vernier scale. It may take us two we can do that.
Speaker 2:Make sure it may take us two. Okay, we can do that.
Speaker 3:Yeah yeah, and make sure we get the math right, yeah, but how do we work that? And then 2017, moved schools, of course, halfway through the year, just getting in there, just getting the feet wet, didn't have enough time to get things set up that year, but I still went to school that year because I was like you know what? I want to go back, I want to help out. See what's going on. Yeah.
Speaker 1:See what's going on.
Speaker 3:That was in another school that year, so I went there helped out for the provincials. It was fantastic.
Speaker 2:It was on the weekend.
Speaker 3:At that point I don't mind, I'll take the Saturday, I'll go up. Yeah, it's great.
Speaker 1:I was surprised this one wasn't into Saturday, because most of them run into Saturday.
Speaker 3:Usually they did and they like it was a tri-trade where it was the Friday and then the Saturday was high school. On the Saturday it was a desert.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Nobody showed up things like that.
Speaker 1:Let's move it into the week.
Speaker 3:Yeah. If you move it into the week Then you can bust the kids in what we can do, then is like what I chose yesterday is we brought the high school students yesterday because today I really want to get the secondary kids. Let's get the middle school kids in. Oh right, right, right, because we get those in in middle school and even upper elementary.
Speaker 1:That's what all the STEM research shows.
Speaker 3:12 years old Get them in see what the options are in high school, see what's going on in high school. These are what you guys can be doing in two, three years at most. Yeah Right, be doing in two, three years at most, yeah Right. Get them inspired, right. What's it going to do? It's going to help them get focused in middle school. So you know those rumors and things about middle school and how the kids can be tough. It's a tough time for the year, but as soon as they get inspired and they have a focus on something, those behaviors are going to decrease I mean that's, it's like what sports does to a kid.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know like they may not like a lot of things, they might sit on their phones all the time or their screen time, but they find the sport they like, they're hooked.
Speaker 3:They're hooked and boy, they're going to be focused on everything else, and everything else in life is going to come up.
Speaker 1:When my daughter was music, yeah Right to worry about her watching TV ever again.
Speaker 3:No, like yeah, for me that was swimming.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, exactly yeah. So when you, when you look at the skills world, how well involved, I guess, is the word Like, has the word spread across New Brunswick to the high schools.
Speaker 3:It's spreading more and more and more. I'm seeing more and more schools all the time.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Like we've got today 15.
Speaker 1:15 in welding, 15 in welding and a couple on backup waiting to get in.
Speaker 3:They were able to get in but we only have one school which has two competitors. That means we have 14 schools here represented, yeah, which to me is great. That's amazing, right? So what's going to happen? It's going to just raise the competition for everybody else.
Speaker 1:Well, and that's 14 schools that have welding programs. Right Like that. That in itself is like rare, like in Saskatchewan I don't think I could find 14 schools that have welding programs.
Speaker 3:I can name off more than 14 schools from where we are right now, within a hundred kilometer radius. That's wild.
Speaker 1:And that's something that actually came up on the podcast yesterday a couple of times was the amount of well training centers there is out here. You know you got the campuses of NBCC, then you got NSCC in Nova Scotia. We have the union halls, All the unions which are very deeply invested out here and there's even in St John.
Speaker 3:Here there's a private, that's right. They're saying there's private colleges, readyarc.
Speaker 1:So there is a lot of opportunities to get into the trades out here.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, yeah there's lots of opportunities for the variety of not just welding but just a variety of things which is great, and there's even opportunities for the various trades out here. Mm-hmm, like I was. Uh, I was talking to somebody last week and they said I like they do this came from a meeting where they're talking to the insulators and we can't find enough insulators in the country. Yeah, and we have more than enough work for three years here.
Speaker 1:Yeah, just here here.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 3:So, and my youngest has actually just gone into scaffolding here, yeah, and is loving it Never be out of work Never be out of work, never be out of work.
Speaker 1:Caffolders first in last out.
Speaker 3:Yeah, never be out of work. And he's loving it, yeah, so I was like you know what Well?
Speaker 1:I was talking to the union guys yesterday and they said there's almost 2 million man hours of work waiting to be done. Yeah, that's years of work.
Speaker 3:And we don't have the resources. Yeah, and I remember you said on the podcast a few years ago it was like if every high school student in the country went into today, we would still be short, we'd still be short.
Speaker 1:Yeah, there's like that's not enough, that's nowhere near enough.
Speaker 3:And that's just one trade, yeah, and we have a multitude of trades like we have what 40 competition areas yeah something like that, like how, where?
Speaker 1:well, yeah like we can do it, but we, we need to help.
Speaker 3:All hands on deck, all hands on deck. And I'm fortunate, in like on our school, we don't have that stigma of trades. Yeah, bad word, it's no.
Speaker 1:We're equal. Smart kids go to university no. The bad kids go to trade no, no, that's like no, we have smart kids.
Speaker 3:do both. That's right we have smart kids do everything. The bad kids can do everything too.
Speaker 1:It doesn't matter, yeah, and to me.
Speaker 3:I never look at it. What's a bad kid? Good kid. No, it's like you've got your own challenges.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and these are the opportunities in front of you. What are you going to do?
Speaker 3:Yeah, and let's try to get you challenges and if we can get you a skill, that's going to've been doing things to help that out too.
Speaker 1:Well, it's good, and I mean I find that what happens with skills, because it's really, at the end of the day, a not-for-profit outside entity like education adjacent, I would say is that it really invests into the community of the trade. It does Because there's the industrial side of the trades, where people go to work to get paid. You get a paycheck, you take it home done deal that's very transactional. That can be a love-hate relationship.
Speaker 3:At the end of the day, you shake hands, walk away. That's right End of the relationship.
Speaker 1:But the trades have something that's quite unique and I would say even welding specifically is that it has this network, this whole world of community that seems to exist, and if you don't believe me, just type in Weld on Instagram, right?
Speaker 1:And you'll see the communities that exist to try to support this trade and they're just people that are proud of what they do and what their work is, and that's something that I think sucks people in more than the paycheck the community, because it's the, the people that they get to meet and know and and it's forever yeah.
Speaker 3:And it's you're making connections with things you're interested in. You want to do things like that. So like I've got no issues because at the end of the day, you walk away, you've created something and it's it's creative. That's why, like, yeah, I'm, I'm the SPR of the tech department, but it's the creative department. Yeah, because we have the skill trades, we have the arts, we have the creative arts right.
Speaker 1:Yeah so it's like so how do you feel about this year's skills? You know how you find them as a host city this year.
Speaker 3:NBCC here. Actually, I'm really enjoying having seen the post-secondary yesterday, because I've never been able to see the post-secondary.
Speaker 1:Oh really.
Speaker 2:Because I've always been teaching.
Speaker 3:Yeah, can't get the day off to go to. Yeah, no, no you got to be in front of the kids. I understand that because I heard it's a job yeah, Well, for me it's not a job. I don't miss too many days. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3:But how you know, you got to see the post-secondary yesterday, yeah it was really good and the kids who got to see the post-secondary and got to try trades, things like that, that was really inspiring to them. So to me it's been great and having it during the week, I think, has been a fantastic thing. Yeah, I know it's a little bit more disruptive for people's schedules, but you know what I? Yeah, I know it's a little bit more disruptive for people's schedules, but you know what? I don't find it that way, but the benefits outweigh those minor costs.
Speaker 3:I think and I'm calling those costs minor they're minor costs compared to the benefits and the outcomes that we're achieving.
Speaker 1:I've had some pushback across the country every now and then from high school boards where it's like, well, we only have X number of pd days. But I also worked in education for a while and I know how much of those pd or pl days um are viewed as more of a just a an escape or a day off all right and ours are used right, and that's the thing like this is not that
Speaker 1:no this is an investment. Oh yeah, right, like and and it's something that's been reiterated not just here but every year is that I really believe every instructor, teacher, welder, tradesperson, whatever you are, should attend if not at least a provincial competition.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, I know.
Speaker 1:For sure the nationals, because the nationals are times a hundred.
Speaker 3:They are the next level. Yeah, and I've been to the last two nationals, yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you were in Quebec, right? Yeah, I was in Quebec. I was also in Winnipeg.
Speaker 3:Yeah, those are so fun and they were a blast. And now, having been there and making those connections with industries, things like that even today, yesterday at the provincials, making the connections with the industries for a teacher and just having those chances of collaboration with the upper education people, how?
Speaker 2:can we?
Speaker 3:combine. What can we do together to help grow the trades or where can we help fill the needs?
Speaker 1:Right. So and and how, when you're like working with the other professionals here, seeing the other instructors, instructors at the colleges and the suppliers and everyone here, how well does that outfit you going back to the school? You know, when you go back to work next week, you go back with a new set of tools in your brain.
Speaker 3:I have stuff I'm going to be bringing into the classroom tomorrow. Yeah, I'm back in the classroom tomorrow. I got stuff I'm going to be putting into the shop tomorrow. You're like, ooh, I saw this, I saw this am.
Speaker 2:I going to do it. I saw this, I saw this and we're going to do it. And I was like absolutely.
Speaker 3:And then I've also seen same time as like talking with people going. You know what, what I've been doing, this is good, yeah, you're not on the wrong track. I'm not on the wrong track where I might want to tweak this or this is a new idea. I want to try things like that, but I've also got things. Now I day Today's we're just starting today and I'm like sweet.
Speaker 1:I got more things I got to put in my pocket here, or I can keep a journal or a notepad or what can I bring back for the other trades as well?
Speaker 3:For the other teachers who can't be here, who don't get this opportunity. When I go to nationals, that's what I'm always doing. I'm coming back with different projects, things like that, because we have one of our teachers does the intro to skill trades and the grade nine tech, which is the introduction to the trades, things like that. So I'm always trying to find all those little projects they can do to put together so they can drive an interest, so they can get up and going on things and yeah I'm always coming up with something or connections that oh, let's, let's touch base and let's get you connected with the right people so we can really does the skills community?
Speaker 1:I guess? I'm just trying to think of, like, how the other connections can be created. Do you have people from skills come to your schools and talk and stuff like that? Yeah, what's the back and forth?
Speaker 3:Well, for me, I've always reached out to skills and they've since since 2016,. We've we've got that connection and things like that, and I've always tried to reach out to them. And they come in, they talk to the kids. I get them coming in every year to talk to the kids Good, good, and I also time it. I get them in the fall, but then I also get them early February because the school registrations just start coming out in February and I always get kids go oh, I've got.
Speaker 1:That is an option, yeah.
Speaker 3:I got. I'm good at this, so Go with it, go with it. I had a girl a couple of years ago who went to Winnipeg for public speaking. Today she's competing in workplace safety.
Speaker 1:Oh, wow, I see the crossover for sure, absolutely. She finished fourth at nationals and last year she finished she didn't even medal in provincialism you know what?
Speaker 3:Honestly, I didn't invest myself as much as I did that year first year but, I kind of want to go this way, absolutely, go with it, go with it.
Speaker 3:And I got other kids who are coming in find out. They've never taken a shop class but they're doing some of the other competitions here. Yeah Right, you got people who are new and I want to try this out. Absolutely, we're going to get you in here, yeah. And to me it's like, yeah, we don't have to teach it. We may not have it in school, but if you got an interest we're going to chase it down for you.
Speaker 1:Yeah, now what kind of advice would you give to, perhaps, a young educator getting into high schools that you know is going to be put into these roles going forward? You know, what kind of advice would you give them in terms of a support for possibly any skilled trades and and be like resources that they can draw upon?
Speaker 3:Well, like for me, I've been really fortunate, and I think the problem is we're really fortunate too is we've had access to the for the welding stuff, the online learning portal for the CW learning stuff yeah, absolutely fantastic curriculum. Yeah, heck of a lot better than the textbook too, and it's current.
Speaker 1:For sure. Yeah, heck of a lot better than the textbook too.
Speaker 3:And it's current, for sure. It's updated all the time. It's constantly updated.
Speaker 1:I saw an update last week, I was like fantastic.
Speaker 3:Right, but it's like I can always see how it's getting upgraded, things like that. I was like you know what? Yeah, we put in for it and things like that. There's always hiccups and things, but you know what, and it allows me then to get more time in the shop.
Speaker 1:Yeah, where you need to be, hands on with the kids.
Speaker 3:Yeah, versus in a classroom with a textbook.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and textbooks are death now.
Speaker 3:Well, textbooks are 10 years out of date.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 3:Well, and the cost.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Right, when 300 bucks. Some of them are like who's going to pay for that A class?
Speaker 3:set of that. Yeah, One class set is like oh well, there goes the budget for the year. Yeah, exactly, but what? We have available, though it's like you know what. Now we can do it effectively, and there's other online resources too, we can use.
Speaker 2:There's lots out there, oh, lots out there, and some of them are not as good as others.
Speaker 3:Others, like, I think TWP is standard, that's what we're trying to do.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And well, and try to support it with the other pieces of the puzzle too, right?
Speaker 3:And it's been really good and really effective and my kids have been really really successful at skills.
Speaker 1:I can say that how are they going to do today?
Speaker 3:Well, I know the competitors are in there, I know what it is and actually today I, when I walked in there to see who the competitors were, I was actually really happy to see we're not quite parity for girls to guys. I saw four or five girls in there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, that's great.
Speaker 3:And I was like, and that was a, that was four, five, 11. Now we got a sixth one in there too. No, really, yeah, Amazing Good Another one walked in there I was like that's almost parody. Yeah, yeah, and that's what we, that's what I'm always aiming for is parody.
Speaker 1:Well, what? What did Courtney say yesterday on the on the winner's table there, the precision machining, or somebody had all three. Top three were women. Nice, that was awesome.
Speaker 3:Nice.
Speaker 1:She's like this is the first time we've had a top three.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:All women in this trade, yeah, and I was like that's amazing, good yeah, like to me it's like why not?
Speaker 3:Yeah, and for me like going to provincials. We always have to do an in-school competition because I have so many kids who are interested. So we do an in-school and inevitably I I have a runoff, yeah. You have to trail it down. Well, no, like I love, absolutely love, and really think we need to grow that more. Yeah, but then we also have another project, the higher level, yeah. A previous provincial skills project.
Speaker 1:Let's see what you can do.
Speaker 3:Let's kick it up a notch and see what you can do. Yeah, and I always have. If I don't have enough, I'll make more packages. So we have five, four or five going at it. Yeah, four or five going at it. Yeah, and inevitably in that it's always at least one girl. Yeah, good, out of our program. Yeah, I'm going great, I want more, and last year it was.
Speaker 1:It was so close well, the in the last three years the best welder in canada has almost been a girl twice.
Speaker 3:Yeah, second place two years in a row yeah, it's like, and I think last year was, I think last year was a Browns was also a girl, that's right.
Speaker 1:And it's like so close yeah, Like come on.
Speaker 3:And to me it's like you know what.
Speaker 1:And for me, I would love for Canada to be the first country internationally to send a girl to the world, oh absolutely. I would love for us to make that move right.
Speaker 3:I am totally with you on that one. I am totally with you on that one because to me like having worked in the trades, having worked in the education system, both systems like education system predominantly women, yeah. Trades predominantly men, right. And when I've been in a system where it's been more balanced yeah, wow are we effective.
Speaker 1:That's right. The creativity is off the charts. Off the charts, yeah.
Speaker 3:Everything else, it's just. It's an amazing experience.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:But you don't get to experience it if you don't have that balance. Yeah, yeah. So for me it's, and that's why I love trying to get that parody together with the women.
Speaker 1:Yeah, All right. Last couple of questions. Yep, for yourself here with skills. What is it that you're looking to take back with you from you know these couple days?
Speaker 3:Taking back to me, like what can we do to get any kids inspired for next year? Right, what can we do to grow for next year? What can we do for other things to help further, further grow what we have? Yeah, and get kids, more kids interested, yeah, I mean, cause we get the interest right, we get that passion. Once we get the passion ignited, boy, we're going to go places. That's right.
Speaker 1:That's right. Right, and for the last question, because I know you've been involved with multiple layers of the CWB, the foundation, the association, uh, through skills, through the conferences you've been involved in and I appreciate, appreciate that that I see you being involved.
Speaker 3:I really appreciate you guys, because our welding lab would not be there without the cwb foundation but what is it that we could do better, you know?
Speaker 1:because it's yeah, it's good to ask people that know the system, because if I can't, just ask that to anybody, no, no, I can't right for me, like when you guys have been helping support the programs.
Speaker 3:Keeping like that like our biz, our biggest challenges are always consumables. Yeah, and keeping PPE updated, things like that and I know some schools do it differently than I do and for me I always stress getting the right sized PPE to the people. Like I have two different sizes of gloves.
Speaker 1:I found women's gloves that are Are actually not just small men's. Well, no, they're the Lincoln Jesse Coombs ones.
Speaker 3:I don't no, the Lincoln, Jesse Coombs ones. I don't know if they're still Jesse Coombs, but at one point they were discontinued, so I bought as many as I could from the supplier. Like I cleaned, them out of. Canada and I've got a stock. It's like I got to have gloves that fit small hands.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's right.
Speaker 3:And then also finding jackets. Yes, jackets are always an issue, oh, and last year there was a competitor at the Provincials and they've gone on to post-secondary welding. But this girl the jacket was three sizes too big for her. Her gloves were three sizes too big for her. Like you could fold over the fingers, it's like how is that fair? Yeah, yeah, right, and to me, if you've got baggy clothing and it's unsafe.
Speaker 1:It is yeah.
Speaker 3:And like it's unsafe, like how do we so? For me it's like I'm going to spend our budget to make sure we have the PPE to fit.
Speaker 1:That's interesting, because those are the same things that as a, as an association, we've struggled with the last couple of years. We have reached out to a number of different suppliers, and it's nothing there. No, and we find people that are starting things. There's coming down the pipe, but it's like but number one. They're usually just looking at the trades in generic terms and welding is not like the other trades. We can't be having zippers.
Speaker 1:No we can't be, you know, we can't be polyester. Oh yeah, no, we can't be, you know we can't be polyester. Oh yeah, Right so this ruins a lot of what's already out there in terms of FR or safety clothing. Or cost effective.
Speaker 3:That's right.
Speaker 1:So now, what do you do? Where do you go? And we are actively supporting some startups that are trying to get, but it's it's hard, it's not coming out as fast as much as we need it. Like we want to get out of this 4% with women. We want to get them into some level.
Speaker 3:I want to get 40%.
Speaker 1:That's right. I want to get to some level of parity, but that's not going to happen without them having 40% of the market share for clothing, boots, everything else, yeah, because it's going to be too cost.
Speaker 3:Yeah, how do we balance that out? And then the other thing, especially for high schools, it's consumables, consumables yeah. For us. We're fortunate because we get the government rate for gas, mm-hmm.
Speaker 1:So I and the lease, we have to pay the lease. Sponsor. Are you on the Lincoln consumables program?
Speaker 3:No, it's like, but I'm not on it, but at the same time it's. I've been using LIND Mm-hmm and the local people have been willing to match.
Speaker 1:Okay, that's good. So I was like, because there is a educational portal for Lincoln?
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah Well, they, they, they, like the local guys here have been fantastic. They've been really great to us, supporting us and like they're willing to play ball, Same time as we've actually been fortunate as some of the local companies as well. Some of the larger fabric companies have also donated that some of the larger fabric companies have also donated.
Speaker 1:That's something I'm pushing a lot and you know we Well like they had the old rods from one of the companies. Yeah, they're expired. Well, they're expired.
Speaker 2:They can't use them, or the bad batch, something like that.
Speaker 3:So when it was 2021, they backed up two half-ton trucks to our school. That's amazing and I actually went through and I figured out how much, how much the cost would have been, yeah, and we got something like almost $20,000 worth of rods.
Speaker 1:So listen to this story. In Alberta two years ago there was a large program, a construction program, happening up in North Alberta and it got finished and when it was all done they had a full seat can full of electrodes that was left over, already paid for but not needed for the job, and the company donated it to the CWB and through the association and the foundation, we distributed 1.3 tons of electrodes all over the province for free.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Because same thing expired. Burn them up. What are you going to do? Throw them away. They're great for practice, right, yeah, exactly.
Speaker 3:So the kids are getting exposed to not just the standard 1-8th rods and 3-32nd rods. We've got 5-32nd rods, and it's not just the 70-18, the 60-10, 60-11. We've got 80-18, we've got 90-18. We've got a few more things. So yeah we got 309,. We got 316s.
Speaker 1:Come on.
Speaker 3:That's nice, 7024s, of course. What size do you want?
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, burn those up, yeah.
Speaker 2:Right but and I went. Well, we're not going to use a 6013s Come on, that's just.
Speaker 1:but yeah, give those.
Speaker 3:So when they leave us, they go. Oh yeah, I know that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we know. Yeah, we've had these. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3:So they get a chance to go? Oh, big rods.
Speaker 1:They like the big rods Awesome. Well, thank you so much for this interview. You know any last words you'd like to say, anybody you know, in terms of the skilled trades, or even Skills Canada.
Speaker 3:Well, you know what I do have to say. Thanks to Courtney and the Skills in Brunswick team. They've been fantastic. They support the students and the competitors here so much, especially at nationals because I know what some of the other provinces' competitors have to pay and for the high school students here there are students who would not be going to nationals because they wouldn't be able to afford to. To me, they have been absolutely fantastic. They are. They're the reason why skills are growing. Yeah, and in the schools even. Yeah, and I know it doesn't get out there much, but I can see how they've been pushing and they've been working with industry, they've been working with the government and there's been a big push which has been fantastic and they've been great advocates.
Speaker 1:Well, we wouldn't be out here if it wasn't for Courtney calling me and saying get in your butt down here. Okay, I'm coming. You know what?
Speaker 3:She has been fantastic for the province.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, awesome. Well, shout out to Courtney. Thank you so much. We're going to interview her, hopefully later today.
Speaker 3:Yeah, we ended up switching. She had conflicts.
Speaker 1:She's busy. She's a busy lady. I understand.
Speaker 3:She knows it. You know what. I'll play ball and I'll jump in where I need to. Thank you so much for being here.
Speaker 1:Good luck to your competitor. Great program that you have with your high school.
Speaker 3:Oh, and I'll see you at Nationals.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'll see you at Nationals. We'll be there. It's in Regina oh yeah. Actually, that's one place I've not been in Saskatchewan yet. Okay, it's a cool brewery, so yeah, but yeah, take care and we'll see you out on the floor in a little bit here, awesome.
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