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MARCH 26, 2015
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100milefreepress.net
Find Your Fit in a growing workforce
WorkBC brings career options tour Carole Rooney Free Press
TRADES TRAINING IN HIGH SCHOOL B1
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Peter Skene Ogden Secondary School (PSO) was the place to be for local students and adults looking for a career path in British Columbia. WorkBC’s Find Your Fit tour stopped there to showcase in-demand jobs in B.C. for job seekers in 100 Mile House on March 24. Following all-day sessions that gave students an opportunity to experience this interactive, hands-on free careers event, it also opened to the public for about four hours. Tour stop supervisor Meghan Glover says this first Find Your Fit stop at PSO was “really successful” and the students were “very polite and respectful.” “A lot of them had a career path in mind already, and so instead of helping them find something, we were telling them what school to go to, what kind of grants are available, and what classes they need to take in grades 11 and 12.” Everyone who attended had the chance to test-drive some of the skills they would need for various careers, to learn about jobs in demand in the province and online resources to find work, and to experiment with career options. Grade 8 PSO student Gawen Pinkett says he experimented with the interactive tools, particularly computers and an electronics building station that challenged him to fit
Carole Rooney photo
Grade 9 student Calvin McEachern checked out the interactive electronics skills testing equipment at WorkBC’s Find Your Fit tour stop, with representative Brad Fogelman, at Peter Skene Ogden Secondary School on March 25. The event also attracted local families and individuals seeking career information.
parts together to turn on lights. Pinkett says he already has a career in mind. “I want to design cars.” Calvin McEachern, who is in Grade 9 at PSO, says he checked out a welding test and some other interactive stations. “You can actually see how well you do at welding, it tells you your accuracy and what not,” he says, adding he was most confident with the electronics station.
“I am more into technical stuff. I have worked on that kind of stuff my whole life. So I learned a few more techniques.” Pete Van Osch of Forest Grove took in the tour stop with his two children after school. “I’m just helping my kids pick out a career, or narrow it down. My son [Michael] is more into the trades end of it, but my daughter [Reneé] is more interested in the RCMP.” Cariboo-Chilcotin MLA Donna
Barnett says the tour supports the province’s future demand for skilled workers. “... [Find Your Fit] maximizes the potential of the young people about to enter the workforce, current workers who need to upgrade skills, and those in under-served communities who face unique challenges to employment to be first in line for the jobs of our growing economy.” More information on the tour is online at www.findyourfittour.ca.
School budget shortfall continues School District #27 (SD27) trustees made the unanimous decision at a recent closed-door board meeting to not consider closing any more schools to help balance the 2015/16 budget. However, they must cut the budget by $800,000 again this year. This is due to funding reductions the Ministry of Education announced last year, which are linked to the district’s declining student enrolment. The government’s move is also expected to systemically reduce SD27’s budget for each of the next four years or longer by $800,000 (1.5 per cent), depending on enrolment stabilization. Trustees asked the public for input and ideas through an online survey that ran until March 6.
Then SD27 staff began the draft budget process, considering the public comments, and will bring the document back to the trustees at the public board meetings in Williams Lake (April 28) and 100 Mile House (May 26). SD27 chair Tanya Guenther says the board had already consulted the business and education committees, all of the official stakeholders hoping they and the general public would provide ideas and some options. While the survey is over, she notes SD27 will also accept comments at the board meetings under the guidelines outlined in the agenda (also online). Schools superintendent Mark Thiessen adds letters are accepted at any time, but as the process
will soon be underway, he suggests referring to the budget timeline posted on the district website at www.sd27.bc.ca. During the past two years, trustees have met this budget challenge by reducing departmental budgets, closing schools and ending programs, and reducing staff, he notes. “This is always a difficult process. We wish we were in a phase where we were being given more funding from the government. We would love to be adding instead of subtracting from the education system.” Thiessen adds trustees and senior management will continue to focus efforts on budget reductions that have little, or no, impact on students and classrooms.