Students at Barriere Secondary School have been braving the elements as they learn what it takes to work in the trades.
The students are part of a new course, Youth Explore Trades Skills, which introduces them to carpentry, plumbing, and electrical trades. It also teaches them about safety and employability.
The course is supported by Trades Skills BC (formally the Industry Training Authority) and students have the opportunity to learn these skills at BSS during a standard semester block.
This year, 17 students in grades 10 to 12 taking the course and BSS hopes to continue to run the course as long as students are interested in enrolling.
Students have been learning in the shop as they complete labs, build take-home projects, and have started to work in teams outside to build garden sheds.
The garden sheds are eight feet wide, 12-feet long, and have an interior height of up to seven feet. Seven sheds will have cedar siding and two will be sheathed in OSB. All of the sheds will have galvanized metal roofing.
The program is supported by School District 73 and several community partners. This includes Interfor Adams Lake, which donated two lifts of 2x4s and Tolko Heffley Creek, which provided all the plywood needed.
Gilbert Smith Cedar Products supplied the cedar siding, Discount Direct Metals the roofing materials and Andrew Sheret Kamloops the plumbing materials and tools. E.B. Horsman & Sons provided the electrical materials and tools.
BSS was also able to purchase cordless power tools that have allowed the students to learn with new tools commonly used in industry, thanks to a grant BSS Technology Education received last year from the Lower North Thompson Community Forest Society.
Home Hardware Kamloops also provided all of the carpentry tool kits for each student as well as the additional building materials needed to complete the garden shed project.
BSS plans to sell the garden sheds once the program ends to recoup the cost of materials and help fund the course for next year.
Keep an eye out to see when the sheds will be up for sale.