This spring, forty students from schools within the Niagara Catholic District School Board – Saint Michael, Saint Paul, Notre Dame, and Lakeshore – participated in a day of hands-on learning at Niagara College.
For the third time, NC’s Welland Campus was the venue of the Women in Trades event, which seeks to introduce traditionally underrepresented secondary school students to a diverse range of skilled trades programs.
The event sought to broaden their career horizons, challenge traditional gender stereotypes, and build confidence with new hands-on skills and a deeper understanding of the pathways to fulfilling, stable, and rewarding careers in the skilled trades sector.
Participants donned protective gear and rotated through four interactive workshops led by faculty in NC’s School of Trades. Topics included:
- Transportation, led by Wayne Toth and Andy Troyan
- Electrical, led by Joe Felice and Joe McEachern
- Machining, led by Lisa Caruso and Bob Luckas
- Construction, led by Annette Dearling-Manchester
High school students took a tour of the automotive lab and participated in a tire challenge and lighting board activity.
“We have many automotive industry partners that are very interested in hiring women, from Automotive Service Technicians to Service Advisors to Parts Counter personnel,” explained Motive Power program coordinator Toth. “Women make up a huge customer base, and many look forward to having women advise them and service their vehicles.”
“We hope the workshop helped to open the doors to a future in the industry,” said Toth.
The Electrical Techniques program welcomed students into the lab for an immersive, hands-on learning experience using custom-built control station trainer boards.
The boards – a core component of NC’s curriculum – were specifically designed to introduce students to the fundamentals of control wiring, push-button relay control, and programmable logic controllers (PLCs).
Throughout the workshop, students worked with wiring diagrams and industry-standard electrical symbols to build a variety of control circuits. Under the guidance of instructors Felice and McEachern, they had the opportunity to connect, test, and troubleshoot these circuits in real time, just as they would in a real-world setting.
“The interactive lab showcased the practical approach we take to teaching essential electrical skills,” explained Felice. “Whether energizing a relay circuit with push-button controls or exploring the components of a functioning electrical system, participants gained a true sense of what it’s like to be part of the Electrical Techniques program at NC.”
Students in the machining workshop worked on the CNC Machining Centers.
“With a quick demonstration, and current student guides on hand, the students we given all the information they needed to be able to produce a machined part to keep,” said Caruso. “They loaded their workpiece and further manipulated a CNC program to give they a custom design of their own. Once completed they continued onto some further finishing techniques (deburring and buffing). A hands on project that proved to have gratifying results.”
The day included a buffet lunch in The Core and a tool demo from Milwaukee Tool and Techtronic Industries Canada Inc. Chris Murillo and Brendan McMullin gave students a chance to try out different tools.
