Shane Therrien has three uncles who work in Windsor’s currently thriving mould, tool, die and machining sector.
“They always told me never get into the trades,” said the 21-year-old.
He is not the first Windsor area kid to get that message from family members who have ridden the highs and lows of the auto industry. Now that he’s working full time as he completes his apprenticeship as a computer numerical control machinist, he is glad he decided to check it out himself.
These days the Windsor area shops that feed auto parts suppliers and car factories are hiring machinists, welders, industrial electricians and other skilled tradespeople at a frantic pace. Many of these shops were laying workers off not long ago and had almost stopped taking apprentices as the industry shrank for a decade.
Now they’re desperate for young blood, but many lack dedicated staff, time and money to train new hires. One exception is Valiant Corp., where Therrien landed almost by accident.
After graduating from St. Thomas of Villanova High School in LaSalle, he was ready to go to university to take math and sciences with the aim of getting into the medical field. After one semester at the University of Windsor, Therrien knew it wasn’t for him.
He found it difficult to hit the books after class, but he is smart and good with his hands. He’d built decks and fences with one of his uncles in the summers since he was 14 years old and helped his dad with maintenance work at his mom’s hair salon.
“My family is a hard working family. Everybody is always working,” he said.
A Grade 12 diploma, motivation and reliability are the three things Mike Ouellette looks for in the young trainees he hires at the Valiant Training and Development Centre. Therrien is one of 83 students the company has taken in to date. They are paid $12-$12.75 an hour and given benefits while they train for 46 weeks.
So far, Therrien and 50 others have then been hired by Valiant as apprentices after completing the program. Their wages start at $14 an hour as they complete their apprenticeships through night classes at St. Clair College and climb to $24 an hour and beyond when they are seasoned journeymen. Other smaller shops are asking Valiant to train for them, said Ouellette, the centre’s skilled trades training co-ordinator.
“We’re hoping to grow to train for bigger numbers, but we need help from the government,” he said.
If Windsor wants to maintain its leadership in the tool, mould, die and machining sector, it needs thousands of young skilled workers like Therrien, he said. “This is what Canada has to wake up and see. We’re going to lose the work to offshore people…. If we don’t start training all these people will be retiring.”
Therrien said he had no idea what he was getting into. He quickly learned Ouellette, who ran his own shop for 33 years, had a good eye for potential. In 2011, Therrien was awarded an apprentice of the year bursary by the Canadian Tooling and Machining Association.
“It’s good. I’m enjoying it now,” he said of running the mammoth machines and computers that produce tooling and parts used in manufacturing. “I don’t know if my body can handle it for a long time…. Hopefully, eventually I’ll move up into engineering or something like that.”
He’s heard the cynical view that it’s a dying trade but, the way he sees it, no matter how technology changes, the work will have to be done by those who can learn and adapt.
“Everything we have requires a mould, requires some kinds of designing to it.”
Plus, he is getting a paycheque with his education, he said. “They’re offering to pay you while you’re training. Why wouldn’t you take that opportunity?”
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