Apprenticeship Program Serves Wide Variety of Students

Beautiful Plains School Division has been helping interested students find apprenticeships for some time, but it was 12 years ago that Bob Lepischak took that piecemeal operation and began coordinating a streamlined apprenticeship program for all of the schools in the division.

"Apprenticeship is an opportunity for young people who are interested in becoming professional tradespeople to kickstart their career while they're still in high school," says Lepischak.

There are 59 apprentice-able trades in Manitoba, and whatever a student’s interests, Lepischak will try to match them with a supervisor. He often sees students interested in electrical, machinery, or carpentry work in this geographic area, but his placements have run the spectrum from hairdressing to heavy mechanics.

Students who participate have to be in good standing, which Lepischak says means that they are working to the best of their ability, not necessarily having to be top-achieving in academics. That said, he adds, many students who choose to do apprenticeships are academically oriented, and many students going into the trades will eventually run their businesses.

With a new vocational high school on the horizon for Neepawa, Lepischak expects to see the program expand even further, though that expansion is not without its challenges. A training space within the school might educate several students at once in a trade such as an electrician. Still, a town the size of Neepawa can only support so many of those students with local apprenticeships.

Lepischak also has a passion project related to his work with the apprenticeship program: to assemble an accredited trade out of the many skills necessary to work in the agricultural field.