New shop gives lift to aerospace training opportunities at Winnipeg vocational school
Tec Voc High School brings existing aerospace, machining, welding programs under same roof with new addition
Students at a vocational school in Winnipeg have a shiny new shop to help them prepare for careers in aerospace.
Tec Voc High School's 5,000-square-foot addition and 5,800-square foot renovation project was completed last month and unveiled to the public during a news conference on Thursday.
"The students couldn't wait to get in here. They were incredibly excited," said Tec Voc aerospace teacher Drew Tapley.
Students first got into the shop in November, before all the final touches were done.
The school, which has over 1,100 students, has offered an aerospace program since 1996. The upgrades bring the existing aerospace, welding and machining programs into one shop.
There are seven different learning environments, including two shared classrooms on the second floor and three academic classrooms in the former aerospace area.
"The purpose of this project was to improve all three of those programs," said Tapley. "We built this new facility that's adaptable to any changes or modifications of future technologies."
The goal is to double enrolment in the aerospace program in particular, said Tapley, but the expansion will also enable the school to double machining enrolment and grow its welding program by 50 per cent.
That translates to space for 272 students in grades 9 to 12 and 43 adult students, according to a provincial news release.
Students studying in this newly expanded building are "engaged in deep and sophisticated thinking that integrates science, technology, engineering and mathematics to serve them in their future careers," Tamara Kuly, Winnipeg School Division board of trustees chair, said in a statement.
The addition and renovation plans for the Tec Voc programs were initially announced by Greg Selinger's NDP government in 2015, about a year before they lost the 2016 provincial election to the Progressive Conservatives.
The new space gives students a chance to train with industry equipment that will set them up for apprenticeship standards associated with a Level 1 aviation maintenance journeyperson program, the provincial release states.
Education Minister Nello Altomare said Manitoba is among the top three aerospace markets in Canada and has been one of the quickest to rebound since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
He said the Tec Voc upgrades will continue that trend.
"That is why we have this facility here at Tec Voc," Altomare said. "It will help alleviate some of those staffing pressures that we're feeling throughout the country and continue to have Manitoba at the forefront."
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