Career Options
Booming businessThe latest heroes on TV these days are not tough cops or crusading lawyers. They're skilled construction workers, whether they're building someone a new patio and deck, returning a flop house to its Victorian glory or tearing apart and redoing the lousy work of some fly-by-nighter. DAVID CHILTON |
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The latest heroes on TV these days are not tough cops or crusading lawyers. They're skilled construction workers, whether they're building someone a new patio and deck, returning a flop house to its Victorian glory or tearing apart and redoing the lousy work of some fly-by-nighter.
Of course, not everyone who wants a career in a skilled construction trade will end up on television, but they will find themselves in demand throughout the GTA as it seems just about anyone who can afford it is remodelling or improving their living quarters.
For the would-be construction worker one of the best places to start acquiring the necessary career skills is George Brown College, which instructs about 1,400 full-time students in various trades programs and another 1,000 to 2,000 apprentices every year. Or as Nancy Sherman, the college's Dean, Faculty of Technology, puts it: "We're known as the construction school in Ontario."
Tom Stephenson, co-ordinator at the college's Centre of Advanced Building Techniques, says the centre's mandate covers apprenticeships, two-and three-year programs as well as two four-year applied degree courses.
"We have most of the apprenticeships in the construction trades," Stephenson says. "We have post-secondary programs in construction management, architecture, building renovation, building restoration and heating, ventilation and air conditioning, for example."
The students attracted to these programs are mixed bunch, Stephenson says. Many come straight from high school, but there is also a good number of career changers and even some with advanced degrees. "I've had people with PhDs take the program," he notes. "I would say, if we're going to rough it out, we're going to have probably 50% to 60% straight out of high school and then the rest vary in age from about 23 to 60."
"VERY POSITIVE" MEDIA
Stephenson, who instructs students in the building renovation problem, says it began and in 1992 and has grown significantly over the last five or six years, which may have something to do with the "very positive" portrayal building renovation has had in the media.
Every September the building renovation program takes 165 students, Stephenson says, and some thought has been given to adding a January intake to cope with applicant interest in the two-year program. "We have no problem with applicant demand," Dean Sherman says. But because George Brown construction programs are very hands-on, space is at a premium and there are only so many students the college can fit into its available space.
Although George Brown offers students the lion's share -- 50% of the college construction programs in Ontario -- other schools in the GTA also provide skilled trades training. Among Humber College's program's is one for construction and maintenance electricians, and there's a similar program at Sheridan College in Oakville and at Mohawk College in Hamilton. Also at Mohawk there are programs for general carpentry, plumbing and roofing. In Oshawa, Durham College has its own School of Skilled Trades, and further afield, at Ottawa's Algonquin College, there's a building construction technician program as well as one in heating, refrigeration and air conditioning. Tuition for most programs is about $2,200.
As for beginners' pay, Stephenson says it's about $14 to $15 an hour, although he urges new graduates to worry less about hourly rates and more about landing a job with a good contractor who can provide the necessary experience. "There's huge potential from there," he says. Although, when it comes to TV fame, graduates are on their own.
FAST FACTS
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