Trades Training on Wheels
By 250 News
Thursday, March 16, 2006 02:51 PM
The Province has provided the Industry Training Authority $1.5 million to buy a mobile training unit for rural and Aboriginal communities in the north.
The ITA plans to purchase a large, expandable semi-trailer unit that can go from community to community to offer hands-on skills training in a variety of trades.
The project will offer training closer to home and that's a real positive feature says Brian Savage, vice president and operations manager of Western Industrial Contractors Ltd. “People who live in smaller communities are faced with considerable cost to travel to trades school elsewhere in B.C.,” he said. “All too often, those tradespersons find opportunities that result in them not returning to the community they once called home. We need more tradespeople, but more importantly, we need them in the areas where we work."
The Minister of Economic Development, Colin Hansen, says the mobile training trailer will go a long way to helping aboriginal people of the province to acquire trades skills at home. Hansen made the announcement at the new Wood Wheaton auto dealership under construction on Highway 16 west. He says many young aboriginal people suffer a culture shock when they go to the lower mainland for trades training, so taking the training to their homes is a way of assisting them over that shock.
Deputy Premier, Shirley Bond told the gathering that 50% of the aboriginal population in the province is below the age of 25 and these young people have an appetite to obtain skills.
The mobile unit is the realization of a shared vision says Mark Lacerte, President of the Prince George Nechako Aboriginal Employment and Training Association,“We are all cognizant of the unique circumstances for delivery of effective programs to the rural community and are pleased to see innovative approaches to meeting some of those needs.”
There will need to be co ordinated discussions with stakeholders to decide which trades will be offered through "mobile" training.
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Posted by: lunarcom on March 16 2006 7:41 PM
If I recall correctly, it was the late 1980’s when SKF, the Swedish Ball Bearing Company, offered their side expandable mobile classroom, which had finished their Canadian tour of promotion and instruction, to CNC for use of going to remote areas to provide short specialized skills-based training in the trades area. I believe the unit was outfitted with something like 12 or 16 PLC (programmable logic controller) stations and toured the north. It was a rather cumbersome vehicle, not able to travel unpaved roads too easily, but provided space for those locations where there may not have been any ready space, and provided secure storage and setup of the workstations so that they did not have to be moved in and out of buildings.
I believe after that it went to North Island College which prides itself in providing specialized mobile training in remote areas.
Innovative? The word is too quickly used without researching. The wheel has been invented, and what would be interesting to see is why it is being proposed again. My understanding is that as a result of funding formula changes from the government, the mobile training program at NIC was cut.
Here is SKF’s current mobile unit used for marketing and some instruction; much smaller than the previous one.
http://www.skf.com/portal/skf_ca/home/products?contentId=242356&lang=en