Eastern Ontario students get a taste of the trade sector at skills competition

Cutting and measuring, Annika Swackhammer and her classmate are getting the job done.

"I really like working with my hands," Swackhammer explains. "I like seeing the finished project at the end of the day."

The Grade 11 student is building a picnic table for the Eastern Ontario Skills Competition, held by the local school boards and Skills Ontario at St Lawrence College’s Kingston campus. 

All of this competition is designed to get young people excited about the trades, careers in sectors like carpentry, construction, welding and hairstyling. 

 "I think we’re being shown that anyone can do it; no matter the age, no matter the size, no matter anything about you, your gender," she says.

Skills Ontario says numbers from the Conference Board of Canada show a need for 500,000 people to enter the skills trade sector within the next 10 years.

Jen Revell is a plumber, and agrees there’s a major shortage.

"The average age of a tradesperson is 50 years old," Revell explains. "They are looking to retire and we need to be able to fill that gap."

She says these are excellent fulfilling careers and it is important that young students see themselves here.

"I think when people hear the word 'plumber’ they associate it with fixing a toilet, so to know there’s so much more than that, from commercial, industrial, institutional steam," she explains.

Tuition for trades at colleges can be less expensive than many universities.

Antonia Levy of Skills Ontario says depending on the sector, salaries can run from $70,000 a year, and in some cases up to $150,000, with students also making money while they are still in school.

"We hear all sorts of stories from young people 21 years old who are earning fantastic salaries and they are able to buy themselves houses," Levy says.

Levy says another huge area of growth is women; they make up only five per cent of tradespeople right now. 

She says there is a wide variety of subjects that are covered in trades. 

"When it comes to the education of these students, they come to realize that whether they are talented in the arts whether they are talented at mathematics and at science, there is a place for them in the skilled trades."