The wheels of commerce start in a workshop – skilled tradesmen make the dies that make the machines that make the stuff we use..

By Staff

BURLINGTON, ON – Manufacturing companies in Burlington face a serious shortage of trained workes with skills that relate to tool and die making.

The Centre, an educational organization that is part of the Halton Board of Education structure offers courses in electrical training, renovation skills development and industrial millwright mechanic/machinist  skills.   These are “trades” that pay  well and offer  satisfying work where expertise is built up over time.

The Centre for Skills Development & Training’s (The Centre) gets students trained and earning for career with a future, fast.

Students at The Centre are trained on equipment they would find in any workshop in Burlington.

The Centre is currently accepting applications for the 22-week, full-time program that includes over 70% of hands-on training in over 6,000 square feet of fully equipped shop space. Last year, over 92% of graduates found work in their field. The next start date is March 25, 2013.

Jamie Fierro-Silva on the right and Omar Taylor practice setting up measuring devices for the very exacting work done on tool making equipment at The Centre.

“Today, almost 50% of Canadian companies, regardless of size of location, are facing serious labour and skills shortages. This shortage poses a threat to economic growth; however, it also represents immense opportunity for people interested in working in trades,” said Kathy Mills, Chief Administrative Officer of The Centre for Skills Development & Training. “Our Industrial Millwright Mechanic/Machinist program is comprehensive and includes personalized job search assistance to ensure students land work in industry as quickly as possible.”

Established in 1988, The Centre for Skills Development &Training has two locations in Burlington and Oakville, and one location in Milton and Clarkson. The Centre provides pre-apprenticeship skilled trades training, employment services, services for newcomers to Canada, and customized workplace training and consulting services for companies.

That’s the corporate part of this story; there is a really interesting dynamic going on in the class I watched.  The twenty some odd people in the class I looked in on were guided by Al Hossack who would work one on one with students as they set up a machine or worked to solve a problem.

Hossack was steps away for any student working in a shop that had the kind of equipment these students would work with in any workshop they went to – and the vast majority of these students would be employed once they have completed their course.

Mike Harwood is the Job Developer for the trades department. In a phrase – he is the matchmaker – he knows all the students and knows the needs of the employers in his markets.  His relationship with the employers is such that they tell him what they need and he looks at what The Centre has coming through the system.  Sometimes a student will do a very short placement to see if the chemistry is right.

Harwood refers to his job as “employer dating”.

Al Hossack, a certified tool and die maker takes a student at The Centre through the set up procedures on a piece of equipment. Hands on and classroom time are part of the course.

What the Centre is doing is attracting people who want to learn a trade and then, while training them, are also grooming them for the first job they will go into.  It’s not a slam dunk course explained Al Hossack.  We aren’t like a community college where students wander in whenever they want and wearing their pyjamas if the choose.

The Centre teaches skills and focuses on good work habits; punctuality and reliability.  The students who walk out the door with their certificate in their hands take the reputation of the Centre with them – and that reputation is vigorously protected.  Students toe the line – end up with good jobs, not just decent jobs and are known to have come out of a good school.

Ellen Faraday – den mother to students at The Centre

Ellen Faraday, Senior Trades coordinator for The Centre is sort of the den mother of the place.  She lives and breathes what they do and sees every student as her project.  She knows them all by name and knows where they are probably going to get their first job.  These are “her people” and she is heavily invested in their progress. Ellen will tell you as she leads you from one workshop to another that three of the women who work with Mike Holmes – of Holmes on Homes fame came out of  The Centre and then she rattles off the names.

The course that will start at the end of this month is being sponsored by the Ministry of Training – they are picking up the bulk of the fees.  Great deal, great opportunity for someone who would like this kind of work or who wants to change the career stream they are in.

The Centre – worth looking at.

 

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