THUNDER BAY — About 140 local Grade 8 students received an opportunity Monday to visit a unique mobile classroom that was driven to half a dozen elementary schools.
Skills Ontario operates the Trades & Tech Truck, taking it around the province to give students some hands-on experience with skilled trades.
The government has stated the province will need over 250,000 new workers in the skilled trades by 2025.
The 42-foot truck features a variety of activities and simulators, including modules on auto-painting, changing car tires, welding, electrical systems, operating heavy machinery such as graders, excavators and bulldozers and other trades.
Hayley Mackay, driver and coordinator for the Trades & Tech Truck, described the unit's virtual paint simulator as a safe way to learn about auto-painting without wasting materials.
"It actually grades the students on their application, so they can see how they've done and where they can improve," she said.
"In the skilled trades, the majority of learning is done with hands-on activities. It's about 10 per cent schooling, and 90 per cent learning on the job," said Roger Drcar, specialist high school major coordinator and Ontario youth apprenticeship coordinator for Lakehead Public Schools.
Drcar said the Trades & Tech Truck helps encourage students to take technology courses and courses that will lead them to a skilled trades pathway when they move on to high school.
"Probably the best way of showing kids is to have them actually do the activity and see if that sparks an interest."
The vehicle's visit is in conjunction with a government-organized skilled trades career fair for Grade 7 to 12 students that starts Tuesday in Thunder Bay.
"Without these workers, we're not able to build things, we're not able to maintain things, we're not able to progress. The reality is that skilled trades provide really well-paying jobs, so you definitely have a proper lifestyle," Drcar noted.
At Claude E. Garton school, student Brianna Babcock said Monday she's already decided to take courses connected to some kind of a skilled trade when she goes to high school and college.
She visited the Trades & Tech Truck and listened to a presentation about how apprenticeships work.
"It helped to broaden my horizon. There's a few things that I'm good at, like math, and some hands-on things like baking," Babcock said. "I might like to do something like that when I'm older."
Student Luke Lamothe described visiting the truck as "super fun."
Trying out the construction driving module, he said, was a challenge but a good experience.
His favourite module was the welding simulator.
"It was hard but I got a 95, and it was fun," Lamothe said, adding that it may even inspire him to investigate welding as a career.
The mobile unit has already been visited by 10,000 students across Ontario, and its schedule is booked solid until the end of the school year.
