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8 Tuesday September 29 2015 By DALI CARMICHAEL Students at Aurora College skewed on the younger side last week as high schoolers from the Dehcho region participated in the annual Trades Awareness Program TAP for the rst time. SevenstudentsfromFortLiardand15from FortSimpsontraveledtoThebachaCampusto learn about opportunities in the trades while having their rst taste of college life from Sept. 20 to 26. AuroraCollegeThebachaCampushasskilled instructorsandwell-equippedshopsthatmake this a real skill-building opportunity for the participants said Duane McDonald acting chair of Trades Apprenticeships and Indus- trialTrainingatthecollege.Studentswhoat- tend will have some understanding of what it takes to be successful in the trades after they graduate from high school. Dehcho students get the Trades Awareness treatment at Auroras Thebacha Campus As part of the intensive introductory pro- grams students rotated through carpentry electricial heavy-duty technician camp cook and plumbing courses. At the end of the week thekidsandtheirchaperonesshowedofftheir newly developed skills in a Trades Olympics. ParticipantsalsoearncreditsforCareerand Technology Studies which go toward a high school diploma. Since2005theTAPexperiencehasbeenof- feredtostudentsthroughouttheSouthSlavein facttheywillhavetheirturntotaketheintro- ductorycourseduringtherstweekofOctober. Forkidsinsmallermoreremotecommuni- tiessuchasFortSimpson-wherethewoodshop hasbeenclosedforyearsduetosafety concerns -theTAPprogramoffersachanceforstudents toaccessnewequipmentandinstructionalre- sources unavailable to them locally. Fort Liard is less cosmopolitan than Fort SimpsonsaidKenNowoselskiprogramsup- portteacherfromFortLiard.Thesekidsgetno exposureunlesswegetoutthere.Thebenets to the program are twofold in his view. One of the challenges that theyre going to havetodealwithistheyaregoingtohavetoleave homelearntothriveinothercommunitieshe said.Werelookingformoreopportunitiesfor the kids to have that kind of interaction. Right now sports is really big but sports trips only last maybe two to three days. We were in Fort Smith for a week and so the rst couple days wasnoveltyandthenitslikeherestheroutine its starting to kick in. Byexposingfutureworkerstoprogramslike TAP communities are also taking a proactive step to ll gaps in the workforce. If your town isnt booming at the moment thenyouvegottogureoutwherethekidscan gotogettheexperiencebecauseatsomepoint differentcommunitieswillboomNowoselski said. As soon as land claims happen in Liard theyre ready to get different companies com- ing in and theyre trying to get the kids ready. By extending the TAP program to students fromnewregionsteachersandcollegeinstruc- torsalikehopetheycanelicitmoresupportfrom theGNWTandprivateindustrytosupportthe developmentoftradeseducationatthesecond- ary school level. We need to set the bar higher Nowoselski said. This kind of event shows that there is interest from kids in the trades. In these com- munities that are more isolated we need a lot more support. In the spring the students are set to return to Fort Smith where they will get the chance to spend an entire week taking on the trade they found most interesting during the Sep- tember visit. EDUCATION TRADES PhotosDaliCarmichael Students from Fort Simpsons Thomas Simpson Secondary School and Fort Liards Echo Dene School get ready to kick off the Trades Olympics on Sept. 24. Jordanna Snider pieces together nuts and bolts in the heavy equipment operator challenge. Thaddus Timbre left Nathaniel Lomen Maverick Martineau and Brandon Hardisty screw in electrical outlets for the Trade Olympics. Trades Olympic champion Ethan Cli takes a victory lap. Ariah Thomas nails it in the carpentry challenge. Chaperones Jim Broomeld left Robin Westlake Ken Nowoselski and Jocelyn MacLean take on the Trades Olympics. Runner up Levi Buboire ts together a plumbing puzzle in no time.