The provincial government is investing in a new skilled trades training project in North Perth.
Perth-Wellington MPP Randy Pettapiece was on hand for the announcement of the funding Tuesday at Smith Steel & Fabrication in Atwood.
Over $1.8 million dollars is being invested to create a new regional Technology and Skills Learning Hub.
The province is also contributing over $92,000 to the Technical Training Group (TTG) to help local youth find hands-on training in welding and metal fabrication.
The funding is coming through the Ministry of Labour’s Skills Development Fund.
The municipality of North Perth put forth a proposal to become the host of the new hub, with the idea being formulated over the last few years.
Pettapiece says this is a needed project that could potentially become a major hub for the surrounding area to have young people attain the skills to find careers in the trades.
"This could grow big time. There's 300,000 jobs that aren't being filled right now in the trades. That's a huge number of people, plus the people that are retiring is gonna make that worse. I believe roughly 40 or 50 percent of our tradespeople are 55 and over."
Additionally, the new program will feature paid work placements, which will help students and local employers. Pettapiece says this is a positive step toward helping youth find meaningful work.
"We haven't pushed the trades like we should have in our education system. It used to be you have to go to university to be successful. Well, that's fine if you want to go to university, but some young men and ladies want to use and work with their hands, and you can be very successful in the trades. It's a very good living."
With many employers constantly looking for workers across the board, especially skilled tradespeople, Pettapiece says this program will hopefully start a process of addressing that need.
"You go around the riding, there's help wanted signs all over the place. For ordinary labourers, right to tradespeople. So we needed to get this out here and get something done, and I want to thank the Minister (Monte McNaughton, Minister of Labour, Training, and Skills Development) for putting this program together, that allowed communities to do this."
From a more local angle, North Perth Mayor Todd Kasenberg says the municipality has a clear vision for where the new hub will be located, as well as how the program can expand and become something big.
"We intend to effect some conversions and changes at the Elma Memorial Community Centre in Atwood to create a super classroom," said Kasenberg. "That's sort of one step of our project. But really, the funds from the province are focused on delivering real outcomes for people. We're sort of creating a coalition of capable partners, and injecting some of our own in this at the front end, to make sure that we lead in ways that are meaningful to our community and to our employers. We are also thinking about how this environment could lend itself to corporate training, to focused, one or two week kind of quick, rapid deep dives into specific topics, so there's a range of things we're sort of contemplating and trying to make sense of at this point."
Mayor Kasenberg says this was a vision the municipality had, largely to try and retain young workers, help staff local employers and allow rural people to be able to access quality education without travelling great distances.
"We had a vision of North Perth being at the centre of learning in our regional area, in our catchment area, and Randy talked about that 50 km dead zone for our residents that we have experienced around trades and other types of training. So, we're starting to meet that need, and allow people to stay close to home to gain knowledge and skills. Most of our decisions will be made around the question of 'How does this help our local employers?' And we're going to remain devout in using that lens so that we make the best decisions to support enriching the labour environment of North Perth and of Perth County, as well."
With programming hopefully beginning in June in some form, Kasenberg says he is confident this will help people in the area get over barriers, including travel and location, to attaining new skills.