National Skilled Trades and Technology Week 2019

What is National Skilled Trades and Technology Week (NSTTW)?
NSTTW is a key date in the annual Skills/Compétences Canada (SCC) calendar. The goal of this week-long event is to promote and host awareness raising events around the many career opportunities in skilled trades and technology in Canada. During NSTTW organizations from across Canada get involved with SCC in a “hands-on” way to promote skilled trades and technology careers to youth, parents and the public.

Why is it happening?
It is clear that skilled trade and technology careers are important for our economy and an excellent career path for many young Canadians. Yet many Canadians either do not know what trade careers look like or what they entail. This week of events and information is dedicated to raise awareness through insight into the career options available.

Skills/Compétences Canada’s plan is to work with its member organizations and partners to facilitate and host skilled trades and technology activities in regions across Canada, to engage business and political leaders in discussions about the importance of these careers for our country, to focus media attention on these careers and to highlight those individuals that pursued these paths themselves.

Goals

• Get Canada’s youth thinking about skilled trade and technology careers as a viable, interesting option.
• Get Canada’s youth to engage in projects/experiences involving skilled trades and technology, fostering conversations between industries, teachers and students.
• To engage with industry thought leaders and political decision makers creating a dialogue focused on the importance of encouraging uptake in skilled trades and technology careers to ensure that Canada remains at the forefront of competitive advantage in global economies.

Official Launch and Try-A-Trade® and Technology Activity Event: November 5, 2019

On November 5, 2019 Skills/Compétences Canada hosted 130 guests at our National Skilled Trades and Technology Week Official Launch breakfast at the Burnaby Campus of the British Columbia Institute of Technology.

The newly elected President of Skills/Compétences Canada, Karen Creditor, gave welcoming remarks. We also had addresses from representatives of our event partners BCIT and the Industry Training Authority. In addition, WorldSkills Team Canada 2019 Competitors Jack Dupuis and Clarissa Roque joined us to tell their amazing stories. The breakfast was concluded with a fun competition to see who could use their Document Use skills to turn on the lights on a Consulab training module.

Later that morning and throughout the day, we successfully hosted more than 500 local students at the Burnaby Campus of the BCIT for our National Skilled Trades and Technology Week event. These students were able to participate in more than 25 Try-A-Trade® and Technology activities set up in BCIT’s great automotive shop and other labs with the help of our partners and industry experts. A huge thank you goes out to the staff and volunteers from BCIT and our event partner the Industry Training Authority for making it a memorable day for all that were involved.

Please view the official photos on Flickr.