The Avon Maitland District School Board has had a lot of success with its apprenticeship programs recently and part of that success has been attributed to the fact they introduce skilled trades to students at an early age.
And that was definite a factor in Eden Lalonde's case.
She explains, like a lot of students, she had planned to go to college or university after high school. But in grade nine, at Stratford Northwestern Secondary School, she took a tech course that exposed her to four different skilled trades. And she loved it.
“You don't have to take homework home and I get actually to make things and it's actually fun, so I decided to look out cruising the trades and really liked the welding and taking stuff apart and fixing it and then if figured out there's a trade called millwrighting, so I did a little bit of research,” said Lalonde.
Lalonde says her parents had some doubts at first and felt she would still probably end up to going to college or university.
But she started working in the summer between grades 11 and 12 just to get some experience and when they noticed that she came home from work happy every day, they supported her decision.
Lalonde says she still entertaining the idea of going to college or university down the road, but she says she really wants to get a little more experience in trades.
“I really want to get a little more experience in trades millwrighting, its a very complicated trade, there a lot of stuff you have to know for it. But in the future, when I want to build a family and stuff, I kind of want to lean towards a more managerial where I could make more my hours a little bit and be at home a bit more,” added Lalonde.