If you can’t get students to shop class, bring shop class to the students
Written by Caroline Zentner
Monday, 06 October 2008
COALHURST—Students donned helmets and gloves eager to try their hand at welding in the newly-opened CTS Mobile Training Facility at Coalhurst High School. The Career and Technology Studies mobile unit is comprised of two trailers. One acts as a warehouse to store equipment while the larger unit has two pullouts that can be set up as a shop for trades like carpentry, welding, plumbing, pipefitting, electrical and automotive. “It gives us a chance to try out a new trade,” said Jason Allonby, a Grade 11 student. “It’s fun and it’s better than sitting in class,” said classmate Derek Block. “This is a great opportunity for these kids,” said shop teacher Ken Sanderson. “They have never had this before.” The CTS Mobile Training Facilities allow school divisions like Palliser to bring shop classes to small rural schools without a built-in shop. Rather than busing students to a school with a shop for CTS courses or searching for information online as Block did, students get hands-on experience at their own school. The CTS mobile unit will spend a semester at Coalhurst High School before it’s moved to Nobleford for the following semester. “School boards have really jumped on board with being able to facilitate all the different schools with trades,” said Benny Di Franco, president of Mississauga-based Innovative Trailer Design (ITD) Industries. “You can service two or three schools with one trailer.” ITD made its first mobile CTS facility for the Grasslands school division in Brooks. The division developed the concept and approached ITD to build it. Since then, ITD has made similar units for technology institutes but the units can be adapted for almost any purpose, including an emergency management triage unit or a mobile dentist office. Palliser has also installed a second CTS mobile unit in Vulcan. Alberta Education provided $1.5 million and the cost of the tools while Palliser provided roughly $1 million toward the project, said Laurie Marston, Palliser associate superintendent of business affairs. The school division hopes to recoup that amount through sponsorship. Perhaps the best advertisement for a career in the trades is former Coalhurst High School graduate Amy Soenen. She’s now a welder and her picture, decked out in her welding gear, is on the outside of the CTS mobile unit. “It’s a fantastic addition to your school,” she told students at Monday’s grand opening. “The tools you will have access to are amazing. You guys are very lucky to have that trailer.”
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