Students from Williams Lake and 100 Mile House wrapped up four days of hands-on learning with Heavy Metal Rocks in Williams Lake last Saturday.
Having the opportunity to learn how to operate heavy equipment left many of the students keen to pursue the trades after high school, including Lake City Secondary Grade 11 student Ian Schwalm and Peter Skene Ogden Secondary Grade 11 student Brooke Huggins.
As Ian enjoyed a ride in the Caribou Interior Crane’s bucket to overlook the entire layout of the training site at the Bond Lake gravel pit from a height of 110 feet, he said his favourite things to operate were the backhoe and the skid steer.
After training with Mount Polley Mine heavy duty operator Daniel Cupples on a mine haul truck, Brooke said she was enjoying the program.
“You learn a lot about machines. How they work and the basics,” Brooke said.
David Corbett co-ordinates work programs for School District 27 and said 18 students from Williams Lake and six students from 100 Mile House participated in the program this year.
Through the program the students spend a day in the classroom learning workplace safety, first aid, construction site safety and spill response.
“BC Hydro and Fortis did demonstrations on Thursday,” Corbett said, noting Hydro simulated an accident with a bucket touching the hydro line and showed the students how workers would respond, while Fortis simulated a gas line being hit and reinforced the need to call before any digging takes place.
And because it was the National Day of Mourning there was a moment of silence held Friday at the site.
“The beautiful thing of connecting our moment of silence in recognizing workers that have lost their lives in work-related incidents is how these young people are learning these steps of safety and risk assessment at the very beginning of their potential careers,” Corbett said.
Describing the program as “great” because it gives the students an opportunity to see options for their futures, West Fraser operations supervisor Amanda Black said it is also good for industry because it exposes companies to the next generation.
“All of industry will have a big gap going forward,” Black said. “This is a great way for us to connect with potential workers.”
Skyline First Nations classroom support worker Saibra Larden brought eight students from Skyline and praised the program’s community partners.
“Lots of people stepped up to the plate this year and we had a new addition with full logging production,” Larden said as she pointed to the top of the site where active logging was taking place. “West Fraser got a logging permit and there will be trucks in here Saturday to take the logs to the mill.”
Donny Kunka who went through the Heavy Metal Rocks program four years ago returned to help out, noting the program is good for the students.
“When Amanda called looking for operators, because I’m not working right now with break up, I decided to help,” Kunka said.
Impressed with the students he was training Kunka said many of them were already good operators and very respectful.
Referencing the saying “it takes a community to raise a child,” Corbett said with Heavy Metal Rocks industry and the schools are trying to do just that.
“In the long run it’s what we all want. The workforce will be completely different once we have these types of relationships established.”
Here Heavy Metal Rocks heavy duty operator Daniel Cupples of Mount Polley Mining Corporation discusses safety with Peter Skene Odgen Secondary student Wyatt Bishop. Log truck driver Donny Kunka talks about why he has returned to help with the program after taking it himself four years ago and Lake City Secondary Grade 11 student Ian Schwalm and the Tribune enjoy a bird’s eye view of the site after Ian completes his training with Caribou Interior Crane operator Tyler Blackwood.