Alumni News and Views - Conestoga College

y Ingrid Town
Everyone is talking
about skilled trades
Today’s front page article in the local
newspaper announced an upcoming
need for 1,500 skilled trades workers
in construction from our area for the
refurbishment of the Bruce Nuclear
Power Plant.
Debbie Travis, diva of home décor
television show “Facelift”, and the
upcoming show “From the Ground
Up” is scouting for new talent among
young people to encourage them to
consider skilled trades as an
educational and career choice.
“Construction can be a very
exciting career and we hope that
more students will begin to see
that.”
Martha George, Executive Director of the
Grand Valley Construction Association
Why are skilled trades creating such a
buzz? Quite simply, skilled trades are
rewarding. The feeling of
accomplishment from creating a home,
a hospital, an arena, or a community
centre is a feeling that you will get
every time you see that new building.
Whether your skill is carpentry,
masonry, plumbing, or electrical, you
are making those buildings where
people gather a reality. It’s thanks to
skilled trades workers that our
communities are growing in beauty
and in size. And Conestoga is
growing in response to the need for
more skilled trade’s workers.
Skilled Trades
Centre of Excellence
Conestoga has begun an ambitious $7
million dollar campaign to purchase a
large former high school property in
Waterloo in order to centralize many
of its apprenticeship programs. This
new location at 180 University
Avenue will provide 12 acres, and
123,000 square feet of space with the
potential to expand to 250,000 square
feet. This move will allow Conestoga
to grow in Waterloo by at least 58%
18 Connections - winter 2006
Campus Update
Get Out the Hammers!
Conestoga is Growing Again!
University Heights, 180 University Avenue, Kitchener
immediately. This campus will give
us the opportunity to effectively and
efficiently deliver more cost effective
quality programming to help ensure
student success.
John Tibbits, president of Conestoga
feels strongly about this subject.
“Without question, the skills agenda is
one of the most important issues
facing Canadian society, because it
ties together higher education,
economic competitiveness and
prosperity, and personal opportunity.
Conestoga is committed to moving the
skills agenda forward, and initiatives
such as the acquisition of the
University Heights property allow us
to create new, innovative pathways to
skills education, for the benefit of our
students and our community."
Martha George, Executive Director of
the Grand Valley Construction
Association agrees wholeheartedly.
“We are fully in support of this
initiative because it will help provide
skilled workers in the future for an
industry that desperately needs them.
This move by Conestoga really fosters
the construction industry which is
rapidly becoming a career of choice
and is growing in complexity.”
Most owners of construction companies
got their start by mastering a skilled
trade. And yet, we have trouble
attracting young people to these trades.
In fact, many high school students
who feel uninterested or unprepared
for university drop out of school
because they just don’t know about
the exciting opportunities in skilled
trades. Conestoga is a college that
prides itself on connecting life and
learning, and is dedicated to tackling
the issue of growing drop out rates.
“For the sake of our futures, and
for the economy, we must
smarten up and start putting
resources where they are really
needed – the trades.”
Sheila Sutherland, Conestoga student.
Conestoga student Sheila Sutherland,
whose letter to the editor was chosen
as the letter of the day by the K-W
Record on October 3, 2005 had this
to say about Trades education:
“There are jobs where you can make a
very good dollar using your brains and
hands, strategically figuring out
problems and making things work.
There are so many jobs in the trades
that are simply being ignored because
the trades are still seen as dirty, lowclass
jobs. It’s up to society to change
that opinion. Trades are for the bright,
for the hard workers, and for those
who want to make a difference.”
And our community partners are
doing just that. As of today, donors
have already pledged a very
generous $1.3 million to expand
skilled trades in our region.