“My kid wants to work in the Trades. What does that mean?” If you’re the parent of a child that adamantly does not want to go to college or university there are a plethora of other options. If you’re not sure what those options are, you aren’t alone. To quote “Mike Rowe” there is, and will continue to be, a shortage of workers in various Trades. Until we actively encourage students to pursue Trades with the same zeal that we promote College and University educations, the situation will only grow worse. Langley School District has an excellent Trades program and is constantly looking for ways to improve and expand on the Trades offered. There are tours coming up next week. Check out this link for more information. https://www.sd35.bc.ca/programs-initiat…/career-education/…/
Also, they’re looking to create a focus group in the next few weeks to research why kids aren’t enrolling in the various programs when tuition is free, the trades are in demand, and a job is almost guaranteed at the end, and the credits earned count towards graduation.
What more information could you provide on the platform?
The platform would be a focus group ideally. Some background information that may be helpful is that the enrollment in our Youth TRAIN in Trades programs (https://www.sd35.bc.ca/programs-initiatives/career-education/youthtrain/) formerly known as ACE-IT or Accelerated Credit Enrollment In Industry Training) have been declining steadily for a decade. Districts across the lower mainland are seeing a similar drop. This is despite the “bottoming out” of funding and enrollment decline that have hampered efforts to get students into these programs. Langley previously operated over over a dozen of these programs and there are now seven. I’ve attached program information for our seven programs. The reason why we’re doing this research is were kind of stumped that more students aren’t enrolling in these programs as these trades are in demand, hands on, offer free tuition that would otherwise cost thousands of dollars after high school, lead to good paying jobs that are certified provincially or nationally, and grant elective credits that count towards graduation. The goal of the focus group is to determine and understand parent perception of the programs, their involvement in helping their child choose one of these programs, awareness and general insight that will help us get more kids into these programs. We want to ensure the programs are fully subscribed and eventually grow offerings and know we must increase awareness and how we promote these programs to parents. The results of the focus group will tell us how to go about making these changes.
Would you be interested in coming to a DPAC meeting and doing a short presentation?
The Career Department and/or the BCIT team (comprised of marketing students who are doing the research for us) could meet to let you know more. One consideration is the team is looking to wrap up their focus groups by the middle of March (spring break) so they can analyze their results and write up a report with recommendations. Do you think it’s possible to arrange a presentation and the focus groups prior to that?
Do you have a specific target group you wish to garner information from?
Parents of students in grades 8-12
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