The Nicola Valley Institute of Technology (NVIT), is planning on sending their mobile trades training unit to Tumbler Ridge.
One of the biggest question marks that was still hanging over the secondary students returning to class was: what about shop?
Some people suggested that the shop classes could be barricaded off from the rest of the school, but a new solution has been found.
NVIT—BC’s only public, post-secondary institution by and for indigenous people—has a mobile trades training unit, and they have offered to lend it to School District 59 for the rest of the school year. “It will arrive in the coming days with an instructor who will orient our staff to the operations of the trailer,” says the school district in a post on their website.
“It should be heading out today, actually,” says John Chenoweth, President and CEO of NVIT, when I talk to him on Monday. “It’s about an 11 hour drive, so either tonight or tomorrow.”
He says it’s not a single trailer, but a pair of trades trailers that are specifically designed for up to four different trades. “There’s 12 welding bays in the trailer,” he says. “We can also do an introduction to millwright program. There’s also facilities for teaching plumbing and electrical. That’s a program we run called Bridging To Trades.”
That said, says Chenoweth, the trailer is designed to be flexible, and other skills can be taught. “At NVIT, we’re an indigenous school. Our mandate is indigenous education, and we travel all over the province into indigenous communities or communities that have a lot of indigenous people with our trailers. We run a three month program called ‘Bridging To Trades.’ That trailer has been to all four corners of the province, serving students in remote areas.”
The school was planning on running a Bridging To Trades program later this spring, but Chenoweth says those are going to be postponed until fall. “Our trades instructor is on their way to Tumbler Ridge today, and I would imagine that at least one of the trailers is already en route.”
He says there’s actually two trailers. “It sits as a T, with a bridge between them. The skinnier trailer is about eight feet wide and acts as a storage shed or grinding shed. It’s 53 feet long. The main trailer has slide-outs and it becomes a 1100 square foot shop.”
Trent is the publisher of Tumbler RidgeLines.
