As 30 elementary students gathered on the outdoor basketball court of Gibsons Elementary School on March 31, the collective clanging of their hammers rang out.
Their lesson, courtesy of Skills Ready instructor René Ragetli, helped each student craft a bracelet out of a flat strip of copper. He guided them through sanding, shaping and colouring the metal with a blowtorch in a technique similar to “painting with fire,” Ragetli said.
“It's not much different than a plumber would use soldering copper pipe.”
Over the course of three days, around 270 students at Chatlech Secondary, Elphinstone Secondary and Gibsons Elementary schools learned skills a sheet metal worker might use. Some of the older students also made aluminum bowls.
“I think it's important to do these sort of hands-on workshops with middle school-age kids to plant those seeds and have those beginning conversations, it also helps to tie into what they can do in high school. Very often, we end up making decisions based on what our siblings do, or our parents or whatever our friends are doing. And we don't necessarily try something that's outside of that bubble,” Ragetli said. “So it's to give these kids a little taste of the trades, having a project that they can create themselves, that will be unique… and it sparks a little bit of pride.”
The Skills Ready program also gives some age-appropriate information on careers and apprenticeships to share alternative options to academics.
