Apprenticeship Awards

T he Red River Technical Vocational Area (RRTVA) is a partnership of five Southern Manitoba school divisions devoted to providing technical education to high school students in the region. The partnership has grown into the largest education consortium of its type in Manitoba. This cooperative model allows for a wider variety of programming than any one of the partnering schools could offer on its own. While that is true, Harv Giesbrecht, RRTVA Director, says the reasons for developing a shared system might be more simple. "No one community would have let another get the big fancy school while they got nothing," he jokes. Like all the best jokes, it is funny because it contains some truth. In 1973, they started with six different programs being run in several schools, most of them new institutions. Now there are over 20 programs being delivered in 14 different schools. Mainly trade-related, there are health care and drama programs as well. Giesbrecht sees all these programs as closely integrated within local economies. "There is a lot of manufacturing going on in Southern Manitoba right now, with our products being shipped to worldwide markets. It's no secret that you need good people to compete," he says. Geisbrecht has a lot of positive things to say about the approach these schools are using - and some terrific insights into education. "Kids get to make choices for themselves with this. They can stay at their school for half of their courses, and travel to another school for specialized training if they want to," he says. By doing this, young people can have the first level of an apprenticeship completed by the time they finish high school. "I know that before," he says, "a young person might be headed to work at their family's construction company. They don't need a ticket to work there, so they might think getting apprenticeship training instead of just doing the job is a waste of their effort. If they take some of this training while still at school, they will see its advantage," he states confidently. Giesbrecht also believes that public schools may be too focused on the term, 'university.' "There are so many forms of post-secondary education. If you want to design an airplane, you probably need to go to a university," he says. "But if you want to build an airplane, or repair an airplane, you need excellent post-secondary training as well. If we're flying from Winnipeg to Europe one day," Giesbrecht says, "I want every one of these people to have been trained in the absolute best way possible, don't you?" "We really want our kids to understand this too," he says. "To feel like a trades background is not some kind of 'second choice,' but the proper place for an individual gift." And those gifts are in demand, Giesbrecht says. "As our area businesses develop higher standards for production," he says, "we have to get higher standards for our training too." In terms of the RRTVA developing out of a situation where towns like Morden, Winkler and Altona, all experiencing fast-paced growth, and not wanting their neighbour to leap ahead of them, Giesbrecht says, "You know, this working together, getting the most out of the money we had for everybody, it has brought us together. We already had the transportation to get the kids to school in the first place. We just used it more to get them over to ideal facilities. And once these youngsters start working in their respective fields, they will have already met others in Vita, in Saint Pierre Jolys, in Rosenort, who are working at similar professions. This kind of connectivity is really good for our area." red river technicAL vocAtionAL 1 0 h i G h e s t A c h i e v e M e n t A w A r d s 2 0 1 5 By CJ Conway For the Free Press

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