There was an enthusiastic round of applause Feb. 24 for the graduates of the Introduction to the Building Trades program when instructor Jim Lawson talked about the work that Miles Keitlah and Ron Dick Jr. had achieved.
"We have a check-list that I go through when I provide the graduation certificate for students that take this program," Lawson said. "I assign a percentage by each one of the particular bullets. And, I recognized when I went through this for both of them for these guys, every one of those bullets gets 100 per cent."
"These two gentlemen were tremendously conscientious about their quality of workmanship, followed direction tremendously well."
"And I think you should be extremely proud of the work that you accomplished while you were here,” Lawson told them. “Boy, oh boy, these guys showed dedication and commitment."
The work that they did was to build an eight-ft. by 12-ft. shed from the sub-structure up. It was for paying customer Brian Wiles, who not only wanted a good looking shed for his tools and such, but something that could be turned into a bunkie when his daughter and friends came over in the summer, he told Ha-Shilth-Sa.
Wiles was pleased with the result.
“I’m really happy with it; real happy with it,” he said. And it matches the house that Wiles is building, “as though both were built on the same day.”
Miles became involved in the program through his involvement with the Nuu-chah-nulth Employment and Training Program (NETP). He was walking by the office and was pulled in off the street, he said. They knew he had future goals and wanted to get his Grade 12. When he heard about the trades program he felt that it was a once in a lifetime opportunity, so “I jumped on it.” The program provides an elective credit towards a Dogwood certificate.
“I’m actually proud of something that I did,” he told Ha-Shilth-Sa.
The program refreshed some of the skills, like detailed cutting, he had developed as a fisherman when he would have to remodel his boat for the season ahead, but some things, like building the shed roof, were brand new skills.
“It was something that I enjoyed doing…. I learned quite a few new skills, and even home-use skills.”
The project took five months working only 4 hours a week. Two hours each on a Tuesday and Wednesday during the day.
“That’s not just building, but taking the time to teach how to use the equipment and have some practice with it, learning those concepts while you are constructing,” said Lawson.
After almost 70 hours, they learned to build a sub-structure, there was geometry involved in creating the trusses for the roof, there was framing in windows and doors, installing insulation and putting in vapor barrier and then the sheeting, which tested their workmanship and was nice and snug up in the corners when all was said and done.
“We’re not turning out carpenters,” Lawson said. “We are turning out people who have a sense of what this is all about…. They are going to come away with a set of skills and some good understanding of how their homes are built so that they can apply that to making minor renovations.”
Ron Dick Jr. already has a home project in mind.
“I want to build a deck in the back yard, so I’m going to be able to use a lot of the tools I’ve learned from here,” he said.
Asked if he had a time line for the deck construction, he said, “Oh, there’s no timeline. Ten years maybe,” he laughed. But his wife may have other plans, he told Ha-Shilth-Sa. “She wants it probably done, I’m guessing, before summertime … The pressure’s on.”
Ron did a residential building maintenance course in the past, so some of the work in the program was familiar. He too was challenged by the roof, as he’s got issues with heights, he said, but he overcame them to get the job done.
He is currently working at Ahtsik Art Gallery with carver Gordon Dick, who has a project that will soon go to New York. Gord wants a crate built for shipping, so the tools Ron has learned in class will come in handy at work.
“Lawson is a very good teacher and he’s very patient too. He taught us a lot,” Ron said.
The trades program was a partnership between (NETP), Vast alternative programs, and School District 70.
Vast started the conversation about developing a carpentry/joinery Grade 12 program for adult learners, said NETP’s Corrine Moore. Vast has developed a partnership where learners register with NETP and use its resources for a place to study, Moore said.
Every Thursday morning, NETP hosts a SD 70 teacher at NETP that can support the adult learners with their program. They need math, English and career and personal planning, and they need an elective, which is sometimes difficult to get, said NETP case worker Ellie Sampson of the learners. “These guys have proved themselves to be really valuable hard workers.”
“We always work with NETP to come up with creative ideas for our learners in our community and this just seemed like the perfect fit for everyone,” said Nick Seredick, Vice Principal with school district 70 alternative programs.
“NETP is a spark in our community that seems to ignite creative initiatives for learners of all types. I think our alternative programs and NETP think alike in many ways in terms of being creative in education and coming up with different ways for students reaching their goals.”
Seredick said they chose the trades project, because they had all the right resources in place to make it happen. Many learners like a non-traditional approach to getting their education, and the more hands-on work the better.
“This project really speaks for itself in terms of the quality of craftsmanship, how it brought students together and it got them outside of the classroom. Learning always doesn’t have to happen within the confines of a classroom. In this case, our students can learn some math skills, in addition to their carpentry and joinery class credit that they obtained. All the work that they did here is going towards their Dogwood certificate.”
Lawson had taken the time at the graduation event to display the tools that the students had used, including a ladder.
There is a very, very strong emphasis on safety in this program, Lawson said. “These guys get taught about ladder safety and scaffolding. The building was surrounded by scaffolding that they were working on. We develop all the appropriate safety protocols. And everybody goes home at the end of the day.”
And he displayed perhaps the most important tool in the workshop, a broom.
“Couldn’t stress that enough, eh Jim?” said Ron Dick Jr.
Upon their graduation, the learners were provided a certificate, and handed their own tool belts, courtesy of School District 70. Then they pushed the shed out of the workshop, which BC Hydro supplies for Lawson’s class, and into the parking lot where a flatbed truck from Windsor Plywood, another partner in the building program, will take it to its final destination for the Wiles family to enjoy.
