Jun 22, 2023
As Cayuga Secondary School student Lorne Johnstone looks ahead at the career paths he might follow after graduation, one thing he’s confident about is that, “Without our crazy tech department that we have, I wouldn’t have had as many options as I do now.”
A major contributing factor in those greater career options for Johnstone, his classmates and those who will come after was a $182,000 donation from Stelco to the CWB Welding Foundation so that three schools across the Grand Erie District School Board and Brant, Haldimand Norfolk Catholic District School Board — specifically, Cayuga Secondary, Brantford Collegiate Institute and Vocational School and Assumption College School — could get industry-grade welding equipment and materials.
On June 15, there was a ribbon cutting at the Cayuga high school for the upgraded technical education learning spaces there.
Joe Saundercook, manager of fund and partnership development for the foundation, said having access to this equipment means students are able to learn processes and techniques they couldn’t before, and as a result, “they’re better prepared for the workforce and potential careers in the welding and welding-related trades,” Saundercook said. “It’s critical that the high schools have this type of industrial-grade equipment.”
At the moment, Canada doesn’t have enough skilled trades workers; not enough people have been choosing to pursue careers as electricians, millwrights, welders, etc. to offset the vacancies left by those who are now retiring.
Dave Rivard, vice president of operations for Stelco, said the company has “lived what it means to be short of tradespeople; we’ve struggled, as other companies in our group have.”
He said Stelco has had to do things like co-ordinate its downturns with other companies in order to work around tradespeople availability.
While the overarching shortage is an ongoing challenge, there has been some good news lately.
Cayuga Secondary School principal Amber Mitchell noted, “We have seen here and across the whole province a growth in the number of students now entering the trades.”
Unsurprisingly, the welding courses in particular have been growing in popularity at the high school.
Sierra Meadows, another Cayuga Secondary student, said she is headed to Mohawk College to study welding in the fall.
“If it wasn’t for the classes that we have, the shop options and opportunities, I wouldn’t be in my career choice.”
Fellow student Sadie Snyder noted that not many of her friends at other schools have gotten the same learning opportunities as she has. In thanking everyone who was involved in making the donation to the school happen, she said it “has helped us choose a career that we want; you really put us on the right track to where we want to go and start our lives.”