Skills Canada, DeWalt Tools donates tools to school board

THUNDER BAY -- Evan Fairhurst doesn’t see himself attending university.

“Hands-on, working with tools, building stuff – that’s what I want to do,” said the 17-year-old Sir Winston Churchill Collegiate and Vocational Institute student.

The Grade 11 student was in his construction class Monday morning when Lakehead Public Schools received a collection of new and used tools from Skills Canada and DeWalt Tools worth about $5,000.

The tools will go to high school manufacturing, construction and automotive classes throughout the board.

Fairhurst, who is earning a dual credit in construction, feels having better tools will be beneficial for the class experience.

“We won’t have to share as often so we’ll all get to do projects. Projects will go up faster. We can even do more projects because of how much more extra tools we have,” he said.

“No waiting for another kid to be done with them.”

Skills Ontario lead liaison officer Antonio Stefanile said they donated the tools to encourage more students to explore workshop classes like construction.

“There is a high demand for the skilled traded workforce and by fostering this type of positive energy at the secondary school level, it encourages these young people here to become our next generation of skilled trade workforce workers,” he said.

It’s also a way for industry partners to give back to give back not only to the students, but also the school boards for investing in skilled trade programs, Stefanile added.