The Campbell River School District (SD72) has received word that one of the two grants they applied for in October for bolstering trades training has come through.
At the Oct. 18 meeting of the Board of Education, assistant superintendent Nevenka Fair told the board the district was “crossing their fingers” for a grant which would “expand the opportunities for our students to work in the trades.”
That grant was to fund the “Shoulder Tapper Program,” which “pairs career coordinators or recruitment specialists with elementary and secondary school students to point them in the right direction with greater mentorship and positive career input,” according to the government.
Fair told the board they were hoping to receive that grant – for “anything between $13,000 and $25,000” – and another minor one of “up to $5,000” for students who “might need a bit of extra money for work boots or transportation to get to sites.”
While they didn’t receive the smaller of the grants, they did receive $17,500 from the province’s Shoulder Tappers Program.
School District 84 – which serves the communities of Gold River, Kyuquot, Tahsis and Zeballos – received both sets of funding, giving that district $22,500 to put towards trades training.
The government says the awarding of the $5,000 Skills Training Access Grant to SD84 “supports student skills-training development right at home by bringing mobile training units to the Vancouver Island West School District. Also, throughout the district, schools are offering small skills-training classes to ensure students receive the attention dan opportunities they need to succeed.”