VICTORIA - At first, Lambrick Park Secondary School in Saanich, B.C. looks like a typical high school - except for the four or five newly constructed wooden sheds on school property. They are substantial and unlike anything found at a commercial do-it-yourself store. They look sturdy enough to live in.

Students in the Lambrick Park Trades Awareness Skills Knowledge—or TASK—program built the sheds.

Grade 12 TASK program graduates Madelyn Batters and Justin Murai are successful in the traditional classroom academic setting and in their trades’ classroom. Batters, a leader on the girls’ soccer team, stands beside the nearly completed sheds outside of Lambrick Secondary. She explains how the students built the sheds and the next steps needed to get the job done. She points out little details and emphasizes how important it is to get it right the first time.

“You can erase a mistake in English class,” Batters says. “You cannot erase a mistake when you cut a piece of wood. The mistake is permanent. You have to be careful.”

Murai loves woodworking and is involved with the school’s wood finishing business. He points out that the lessons he learned in TASK have influenced other areas of his life.

“My academics got better due to taking the program because I wanted to take advantage of what my other classes could offer me,” Murai says.

(flickr.com)

The TASK program is helping Batters and Murai get skills needed for employment. In fact, they have both received job offers. Batters has a standing job offer from a local electrical company that provided her work experience, and Murai just completed an interview with a company that restores heritage buildings.

“In the TASK program you learn how to do something yourself,” says Batters, who plans to pursue the electrical trade after high school. “You have to do it yourself. No one is going to build it for you.”

Both are graduating Lambrick Secondary and the TASK program this spring optimistic for future and confident of their own abilities. Murai is planning to enter the mechanics trade, an interest he developed from working on his vintage VW Beetle car, because it is a stable and rewarding career.

(flickr.com)

“Most people who take the TASK program find a trade they can put their effort into,” Murai says. “They take the class and they are getting jobs.”

Principal Kevin Luchies says that through TASK, Batters learned “elevated life skills such as learning when to ask for help,” while Murai realized that he was “analytical.”

“Kids in TASK learn that they can complete short term goals, like a one-day certificate. Some haven’t had [success] like that since Grade Four.” says Luchies.

For Luchies, the TASK program motivates students and install them with a confidence that they can apply to other areas of their lives.

“The sheds are a metaphor for graduating,” he says. “Many students are not sure what a high school diploma means. The sheds are a way of saying, ‘I can set a short term goal and complete something bigger.’”

(flickr.com)

Learn More:

Did you know more than a million job openings are expected by 2022, and 13% of those jobs will be in the skilled trades. Trade discovery programs like TASK give students an insider’s view of trades training and the life of a journeyed tradesperson. They are also helping B.C. meet labour market demand by encouraging another generation of students to enter these in-demand occupations.

Government is funding $727,500 for 12 post-secondary institutions to run Trades Discovery programs like TASK: http://ow.ly/Mlv9A

You can find out more about the TASK program online: http://ow.ly/Mlve9