REGINA – Grade 12 student, Nick Morgan, has always had a keen interest in carpentry.
“When I was seven or six years old I saw a couple guys working on my grandma’s deck and I was like, ‘Oh, that’s pretty interesting, I’d like to try that,” he said.
A job where he could work with his hands, bring in good pay and perhaps even be his own boss.
“Why work for someone else, when you can work for yourself?” he asked, smiling.
The benefits of a career in the trades is something the Regina District Industry Education Council (RDIEC) is happy to promote.
At the first ever THINK Construction Career Spotlight, high school students were given a hands-on education in different trades.
“Those are occupations you can’t farm out overseas.”
Executive Director of RDIEC, Gordon Heidel, is confident young trades workers won’t have too much difficulty find work.
“There’s still a lot of guys in the industry who are my age and are looking to retire. There’s going to be a lot of need to fill those positions moving forward,” Heidel said.
However, that doesn’t mean the industry is immune to slow downs.
According to the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, Regina saw only 513 new single housing starts in 2015, the lowest number since 2002. That’s down 60% from the 1,289 single housing units built in 2012.
But Heidel believes there are plenty of opportunities away from standard housing construction.
“The bypass is going to require hundreds of carpenters to build the forms for the off-ramps. So there’s a lot of demand.”
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