Friday, January 6, 2017

Find Your Passion

Dissatisfied with your job? Not sure what you want to do next? CLAC Training in Ontario is helping people turn a new chapter in their lives

Guide Magazine Construction

At 18, Siobhan Hawes didn't have a plan. Growing up in Beamsville, Ontario, she was about to graduate from high school. While her friends were already discussing their future during after school hangouts, Siobhan realized she didn’t know what she wanted to do next.

So when conversations about the latest gossip at school turned into serious discussions about who was going to pursue medicine and who was going to study law, she realized she had a decision to make. Should she study further? Would getting a job straight out of high school be a smart idea? She knew one thing: all she wanted to do was make money and buy a house.

For the next 13 years, Siobhan switched jobs several times. She went from working at McDonalds and Wendy’s to driving a truck to finally getting several opportunities in different factories.

But none of these jobs were what she wanted to spend the rest of her life doing. It wasn’t the constant seasonal layoffs or the rude customers she had to deal with—or even a hit on the head from a pipe once during her time at the factory—that made her want to quit these jobs. It was the sheer dissatisfaction she felt every morning when she woke up—knowing she had zero passion for what she would be doing for the next 10 hours of the day.

“I want to be appreciated and not do the same monotonous thing every day,” says Siobhan. “I want to help people on a regular basis and take them out of stressful situations. I want to be able to move up the ladder.”

So she took some time off to try and find her true calling. But it wasn’t until Siobhan and her partner were ripping apart and fixing sinks in a duplex they owned that she realized how easily the work came to her. She had a knack for it. Although she didn’t think it was a big deal at first, her partner encouraged her to look into the trade of plumbing.

After realizing how naturally plumbing came to her, she talked to a career counsellor and researched different training programs. Eventually, she decided a pre-apprenticeship program in plumbing was the best option for her.

While researching, she says her two priorities were the cost of the program and how beneficial it would be to her in the future. She decided to enrol at Pre-Apprenticeship Training Institute (PAT), which shares space with CLAC in Cambridge.

“I am so glad I made this choice,” says Siobhan. “Everyone is so nice, supportive, and helpful. It’s amazing. It’s not something that I’ve ever experienced before, and being in such an atmosphere honestly makes you excited to learn every day.

“The teachers are phenomenal here and very hands on. They stop what they’re doing and listen to your problems. They walk you through the solution until you understand it completely. I can honestly say this place has become my second home.”

Knowing that plumbing is a male-dominated field, Siobhan plans to open up her own women-only business one day. She thinks customers, especially other women, would feel more comfortable inviting another woman to their home or business.

“Women don’t need to stay at home anymore,” says Siobhan, who firmly believes in defying gender stereotypes. “I was a truck driver once upon a time and now I am becoming a plumber. I am doing two things that society doesn’t expect women to do.”

Pre-Apprenticeship Training Institute and CLAC are helping people just like Siobhan achieve their dreams with the training programs and courses that they offer.

Wayne Rowley has been an electrical instructor for seven years and has been working for PAT Institute for three years. His day starts at the CLAC Cambridge Member Centre at seven a.m. with a safety briefing, then a lesson, followed by practical work on the floor for at least three hours.

“The class sizes aren’t large,” says Wayne. “We spend a lot of time with students one on one and try to teach them not only basic theory, but also practical real-world knowledge. At the beginning of the course, on their first day of class, I make my students do a light switch test. It usually takes them a very long time. On the last day of class, I make them do it again, and they can see the difference. The proof of how much they’ve learned is right in front of their eyes.”

Derek Couto is one of Wayne’s students. Derek grew up in Listowel, Ontario. He wanted to become a professional basketball player, but after graduating from high school, he realized he couldn’t afford to take a year off from work to pursue his dreams.

He needed to find a way to pay his bills and started working general labour jobs for many years to follow. After getting laid off from his last job, he researched ideas, and decided he wanted to start a new career in the trades.

“I think it was harder for me because I was in my 30s, and suddenly I needed to start over,” says Derek. “It’s not an easy step to take. But I was sick of seasonal jobs, working 60 hours per week in the summer and then being unemployed the next few months. It just wasn’t working out for me. I knew that if I didn’t take this step now, I would’ve never been able to switch careers. I am married, have a four-year-old son and a newborn, so now is the time to do it.”

Derek is currently enrolled in the Construction and Maintenance Electrician program. He says the most rewarding part of what he does is knowing he started from the bottom not knowing anything about electrical work coming in, and now being able to do everything—from fixing panels to wiring an entire house.

“We learn everything from basic outlets, to wiring panels, to Ohm’s law,” says Derek. “What I like is that we learn the theory in class, and the next day we’re putting it to use and physically getting to practice what we learned.”

After class, Derek is so eager to put to use what he learned in class that he spends his evenings installing new switches and lights around his house. His hard work and persistence paid off when he landed interviews while he was still studying.

“I’ve made many connections here,” says Derek. “An electrical company told me to call them once I was done the course. Their journeyperson-to-apprentice ratio is favourable, so I am very lucky to be at the place I am right now.

“Everything in my life has led up to this moment. With full confidence, I can say I am prepared and excited to start this new chapter.”

CLAC Training - Ontario

CLAC Training operates in all provinces where the union represents workers. Colin deRaaf, CLAC Training’s Ontario director, explains the mission, goals, courses, and future initiatives that help members in Ontario get the training they need.

What are CLAC Training’s goals in Ontario?

Our mission is to improve member experience through training and our goal is to become a recognized primary trainer in communities and industries across the province. When people are looking for training, we want them to turn to CLAC as we offer relevant, convenient, cost-effective, and high-quality training. We also provide on-site training, which is convenient for students. We understand people have jobs so we offer weekend and evening training as well.

What courses and training does CLAC Training offer?

We offer over 100 courses at no charge for CLAC members—everything from skills training to safety training to certifications. Many of these courses are available numerous times throughout the year at CLAC member centres or at one of our training partners’ locations. We just launched our new national online training calendar at clac.ca/courses.

What type of training does CLAC Training in Ontario mostly provide?

Primarily, we work with construction workers. We offer many health and safety courses, such as WHMIS 2015, and we’re working on providing more courses for our members in healthcare, service, and transportation. We provide labour relations training for CLAC stewards, which is the three-part mandatory training program to ensure our members get the best representation possible.

What training courses are you hoping to offer in the future?

On a health and safety side, the government is going through a whole review of the occupational health and safety program that includes new regulations, new standards, new enforcement policies, and greater compliance initiatives. We want to make sure our members and signatory contractors have the training that they need so that they can be compliant in their industry. We will develop a construction health and safety awareness training program to ensure that all workers have the baseline knowledge they need to recognize all the hazards in construction—from high hazards such as working at heights, working with heavy equipment, and working around electrical power to common hazards such as slips, trips, and falls. The goal is for injuries and fatalities in the industry to disappear.

Why do people choose CLAC and PAT Institute over programs offered by other providers?

When students graduate from a PAT Institute program, they go on to CLAC Jobs for free, which means we’ll help connect them to available jobs with our signatory employers and help them with the resume process. If an employer says they want to hire someone as an entry level apprentice, they’re more likely to take someone with 16 weeks of practical experience over someone with no background training or experience.

Working at Heights

Fall hazards are a leading cause of critical injuries and fatalities on construction projects. These incidents usually occur when fall protection systems were either missing or not properly used.

In Ontario, if you work on construction projects and use travel restraint systems, fall restricting systems, fall arrest systems, safety nets, and work belts or safety belts as methods of fall protection, you need to complete an approved working at heights training program before April 1, 2017. CLAC has developed a Working at Heights program approved by the chief prevention officer of the Ontario Ministry of Labour and is currently offering it across the province.

CLAC has also introduced an instructor training program to expand the reach of the Working at Heights program. Additionally, licensing opportunities are available for organizations to become training providers using the CLAC curriculum.

To learn more about CLAC Training’s Working at Heights program, visit clac.ca/WAH.

Derek Couto

Siobhan Hawes

Wayne Rowley

Colin deRaaf

Find Your Passion

CLAC Training - Ontario

Working at Heights

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