Caterpillar - Finning Canada

SPECIAL REPORTHUMAN RESOURCESSPECIAL REPORTHUMAN RESOURCESINDUSTRY REPORTLANDSCAPINGThink Big Graduate Jeff BrazeauJourneyman Carpenter Colleen Debuersworking in the field. With an interest in gas compression,his goal is to work as a gas compression mechanic.Brazeau expects to have journeyman’s papers byDecember.For DeBeurs, 39, it has been seven long, determined,dedicated years from the time she enrolled as an apprenticeuntil she received her journeyman’s papers in carpentryin April. “I love what I’m doing, or I wouldn’t bedoing it,” she says. It took a lot to get there. “I neededto do this for myself,” says the determined mother oftwo young adults. As a hairdresser and then workingin a nursing home, she decided that it was time to finda job doing what she had always loved – carpentry.But there were roadblocks and detours. She studied toget high school equivalency, and applied to apprentice.After seven years – sometimes with side journeys forraising two children – she reached her goal. “After Istarted, I had to get it done,” DeBeurs says. Some earliestchildhood memories were helping her carpenterfatherwith projects. Later, as an adult and discontentwith her indoor jobs, her passion for carpentry wastweaked when she was building a garage. The physicallabour, working outdoors and working with wood is adream job for DeBeurs.Being a female on an industrial site has its moments,she says. There was the day a teacher brought a group ofhigh school girls to the site to see what the trades hadto offer. She was asked to talk with them for a few minutes.She wasn’t wearing nice clothes, or even a cleanshirt. It was wet and she was covered in mud. DeBeurstold the girls it was just an every day part of the job,“you had to love it anyway.”Getting along in a male-dominated world meanshaving the attitude that you are there to get the jobdone, she says. If, for example, someone hands you asledge hammer, you use it. Right now, the new journeymanis working for Coram Construction Ltd. on anindustrial site in Edmonton. She’s working with lumabeams, steel, loose forms and building pony walls. “Ienjoy doing millwork and form work on concrete,”Debeurs says. “The future looks fantastic!”26 TRACKS & TREADS • Summer 2005 www.finning.ca