June 2, 2006

Educational Opportunity

Post-hockey chat sparks unique training program

DON PROCTER

correspondent

TORONTO

Great ideas strike in the most unusual of places. When a high school principal and a steel detailer shared a few beers and friendly conversation after a weekend hockey game, the kernel of an idea for a high school co-op program began to emerge.

Fast forward eight or so months to find the conversation has evolved into a full-fledged co-op program which will begin in September at Bramalea Secondary School in Brampton.

“There is a severe shortage of steel detailers and many of those still working are already past retirement age,” says Jason Hiltz, an experienced detailer who works for Automated Steel Detailing Associates Ltd. of Etobicoke.

Only one Ontario community college offers training in steel detailing.

“I’m trying to fill a niche where there is a pressing need,” says Bramalea Secondary principal John Chasty.

With the help of Hiltz and others, including a representative from the Canadian Institute of Steel Construction (CISC), Chasty landed a grant of about $75,000 from the Peel District School Board for 30 computers and classroom upgrades.

An additional $5,000 grant goes toward training the high school’s instructors on how to use their new 3-D software. Thirty copies of the software program, called SDS/2 and made by Design Data, were donated by Quebec-based Magnus Inc. Chasty commends Magnus, noting the copies would retail for about $1 million. Magnus is also providing on-site support.

“This software is a huge monster of complexity. Our program gives the kids a chance to explore it without the employer having to pay for the exploration,” says Hiltz.

“Not everybody has the time to train these days because projects are go, go, go, go. Quite honestly, it is easy to forget that you need to keep training people.”

Class seats in the program have quickly filled, says Chasty, noting that 86 students in Grades 10-12 signed up for the first classes. The semester-long curriculum includes building modelling, matching fabrication connections for fabricators and mathematical formulas. Grade 12 students go to job placement in semester two.

Hiltz says even if only five of the 30 or so students in the co-op program pursue a career in the field, it will have met its objective.

“If the rest want to become engineers and architects, I think they’ll be better at it because they will understand what a structural detailer requires.”

Bramalea Secondary has a long tradition of trades training programs, such as woodworking, automotive and heating ventilation and air conditioning. Adding the steel detailing program is a natural fit, says Chasty.

The steel detailing program was developed with input from The Steel Plus Network, which represents structural steel companies in Canada.

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