Career Planning

Trades students gain edge with green training

Generation green

As trades companies become increasingly environmentally conscious, they're adopting more eco-friendly policies and practices, prompting Ontario's education system to inject more "green" learning elements into its programming.

SHARON ASCHAIEK -- Special to the Toronto Sun
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George Brown's Centre for Construction and Engineering Technologies (CEET) incorporates a number of green aspects into its curriculum and facilities. For example, a new addition to the plumbing curriculum has been a grey water system in which rainwater, instead of drinkable water, can be used.

A recent survey completed by George Brown College of nearly 100 high school and college students and almost 200 industry representatives found that four in five employers in the construction and engineering sectors place a premium on recruiting staff with training and knowledge in environmentally sound practices. It also found that nine in 10 students feel a company's environmental practices will play a significant role in their decision to work for them.

George Brown is one post-secondary school that's proactively seizing on this trend, with its Centre for Construction and Engineering Technologies (CEET) incorporating a number of green aspects into its curriculum and facilities.

"By weaving these concepts and processes into our regular programming, we think we're going to graduate the right kind of professionals for the economy that's facing them," says Nancy Sherman, CEET's dean. "They'll be very well rounded with an interdisciplinary perspective and will be able to connect the dots in their profession."

In the centre's Architectural Technology program, for example, students study green computing, which involves assessing the life cycle of computer hardware and the energy that's used.


In the Mechanical Engineering Technology program, students develop green inventions that in the past have included collapsible wind turbines and electric Vespas.

A new addition to the plumbing curriculum has been a grey water system in which rainwater, instead of potable water, can be used.

The way students learn is as green as the course work. Heating, Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Technology students perform practical class work in a self-sufficient facility that uses recycled energy. Students studying surveying, meanwhile, use equipment powered by solar batteries.

"The initiatives are fertilizing and they're starting to get bigger and bigger, and I think that based on industry needs and people's passion to be good citizens, it's going to keep growing," Sherman says.

That sentiment is even manifesting at the secondary school level, with high schools beginning to introduce eco-oriented curriculum.

At Thistletown Collegiate in Etobicoke, a select group of high school students will graduate this spring fully certified in Energy Star for New Homes (ESNH). ESNH certification prepares individuals to design, build and finish energy-efficient homes.

"Huge advantage"

"For those students specializing in the construction sector, the ESNH certification gives them a huge advantage. It tells potential employers that this tradesperson is an Energy Star technician who can perform to a certain code," says Aldo Cianfrini, spokesperson for the Ministry of Education's Student Success/ Learning to 18 program.

To facilitate this program, teachers at Thistletown participated in a two-day "Train the Trainer" workshop held this past January in Mississauga. The workshop taught how to deliver the ESNH program to Grade 11 and 12 students enrolled in the province's Specialized High Skills School Major (SHSM), an initiative that launched in September 2006 in 27 high schools across the province.

The ESNH program is one of several mandatory certification courses that construction technology students must pass in order to receive their Ontario Secondary School Diploma with the SHSM distinction.

With consumers expressing increasing interest in energy-efficient homes, and the Ontario Building Code set to mandate that all new homes be Energy Star-qualified as of 2012, builders are increasingly seeking out workers with this expertise.

Says Al Schmidt, building and energy consultant, and trainer for Ener-Quality Corporation: "As we continue to roll out the training workshop, thousands of students will have the opportunity to earn ESNH certification, which will make them much more employable."



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