Manufacturing a career opportunity
3/24/2011 3:20:30 PM
Burin/Halifax – Gerard MacLellan knows where to look when he needs welders and metal fabricators. He turns to the Burin campus of College of the North Atlantic (CNA).
MacLellan is the Technical Services Supervisor at the Canadian Navy’s Fleet Maintenance Facility Cape Scott in Halifax, Nova Scotia. A couple of years ago, when some apprenticeship positions opened up, he contacted CNA to see if any of their Welder/Metal Fabricator students were interested in working on Canada’s warships and submarines. Sure enough, MacLellan found two eager apprentices.
“They came with a great background,” said MacLellan. “They had a year of welding and a year of metal fabrication, and that gives them a much deeper education – that’s a real asset to us. They arrived here ready to take on more challenges because they can get up to speed faster.”
Those apprentices, Lucas Penney and Justin Luff, both came from more academic backgrounds, but turned to the trades when they realized they weren’t really that interested in office jobs. Penney, from Catalina, studied history at university for two and a half years before making the switch.
“I realized that the academic lifestyle wasn’t for me,” he says. “I desired something more hands-on, something that, at the end of the day I could step back from and say ‘This is what I built, I have physical results of the labour that I put in.’ That, I think, is more satisfying than anything else.“
Penney says he had heard great things about College of the North Atlantic, so he decided to make a change.
“I always had a great interest in the metal trades,” he says. “Being able to come out of (CNA) with two tickets makes you a far more versatile worker and that was the appeal for me at the time – you get to cover so much.”
Penney says the program is made even more relevant because of the top notch instruction that the students receive. He says that’s especially important for a student like him, because he had minimal experience with tools before he enrolled.
“Being able to come from knowing almost nothing about the metal trades, to learning to work and be comfortable in an industrial environment, my instructors and their personal experiences were so instrumental in getting that across.”
Luff, from Beachside in Notre Dame Bay, agrees that the combination of theory and practical application is a great way to learn.
“My welding instructor was more of a technical guy and the metal fabrication instructor worked at a shipyard so it was the best of both worlds,” he says. “They’re not just spouting all this information at you, they explain it and then you go down in the shop and do it.”
Penney got interested in working for MacLellan when he attended a job fair near the end of his program.
“When I heard about what they do here I put all my eggs in one basket and applied,” he says. “Being able to get your foot in the door at a federal institution is such a great thing I wouldn’t pass it up for anything.”
Students who get hired by the Fleet Maintenance Facility Cape Scott are put through a three year apprenticeship program that’s recognized by the Province of Nova Scotia. Salaries range from about $22 to $30 an hour, and when they’ve logged the required hours they can challenge the provincial exam to earn their Red Seal. The two-year program at CNA counts as 2,000 hours of credit towards the 8,000 hours they need to reach that milestone.
Penney started working for MacLellan and was soon raving to his friends about his job, so Luff also applied. Now the two college roommates work side-by-side in a career they both love. “Here, you’re learning something new every day – and I mean every day. I know guys who’ve been here for 30-plus years and they’re still learning,” says Luff.
Penney knows that he made the right choice by enrolling in the Welder/Metal Fabricator program.
“I’m exactly where I wanted to be – I have a wonderful job and all because I decided to make a change in my life. I took a risk, I took a chance and everything worked out.”
The two-year Welder/Metal Fabricator program is offered at College of the North Atlantic’s Burin and Port aux Basques campuses.
To find out more about this and other college programs visit www.cna.nl.ca.
Media Contact:
Gina MacArthur Public Information Officer
College of the North Atlantic
Ph: 709-643-7928
Email: gina.macarthur@cna.nl.ca