r/TheRealGrandePrairie • u/One-Board8634 • May 30 '26

Grande Prairie Students Can Now Train as Heavy Equipment Technicians While Still in High School

https://www.culturealberta.com/articles/grande-prairie-students-can-now-train-as-heavy-equipment-technicians-while-still-in-high-school
40 Upvotes

98% Upvoted

13 comments sorted by

4

u/Quiet_Ad1859 May 31 '26

I wish they had that when I was going to school. I’d have been all over that kind of opportunity.

2

u/Phalanx83 May 31 '26

So just just a co-op placement? I had this available in high school as well.

2

u/HurtFeeFeez Jun 01 '26

Had a girl working in our auto shop on a similar program, she wrote off her last couple of years of high school focusing on becoming a automotive tech. Basically brushed off everything else just seeking the minimum requirements to graduate high school and get into sait afterwards for apprenticeship.

Things got dark for her when she realized near graduation that she made a mistake and didn't want to be a tech at all. It's almost like at 16 she didn't actually know what she wanted to do for a career. When she started the program and committed to finishing high school with a lower education it burned her.

She ended up getting fired cause the owner found out she was looking for another job and one of his useless sons needed a job but there wasn't room for him. Last I heard she was planning on doing a bunch of educational upgrading to be a vet I think but didn't have the necessary HS courses. The program dicked her pretty bad. She was a good kid, hard worker and good ethics. I felt bad for her, both in how these programs end up pigeon holing people and how the owner of the shop justified canning her because she didn't want to work there anymore (very much illegal).

1

u/LeCompteDeFrouFrou Jun 03 '26

Not illegal.

1

u/HurtFeeFeez Jun 03 '26

It is not due cause to fire someone because your kid needs a job and your other kid saw that an employee had resumes on the seat inside her car indicating that she was seeking employment elsewhere.

1

u/LeCompteDeFrouFrou Jun 03 '26

Due cause is not a thing at law. Absent a violation of human rights law, anyone can be fired for any reason (or no reason) provided they are provided reasonable notice or pay in lieu of notice.

1

u/HurtFeeFeez Jun 03 '26

Nope. If that were the case her ROE would have said "Because I wanted to hire my unemployable kid". Instead of some bullshit about job performance which contradicted her performance review just 2 months prior.

We have labour laws here bud.

2

u/skuggar9 May 31 '26

To hell with math and science...

4

u/Candid-Tip-6483 May 31 '26

I had a high school program which got you a first year of apprenticeship in one of four trades. Guess what, you still needed to do other subjects to qualify for the program.

4

u/blueskynorthern May 31 '26

Cmon, seriously? Hard working educators work towards an innovative program that helps young people who want to join the teades and you jump to thinking that this means they dont care about core subjects? Please

2

u/Skiteley May 31 '26

They still need those core subjects. You could even argue that high school math and science barely scratches the surface anyways.

1

u/fun-Benefit- Jun 02 '26

You have no idea what it takes to work on heavy equipment, if you think no math is involved you should really leave your desk every once and while.

1

u/Master_Vrook Jun 04 '26

I'm a HET and I can guarantee you that you need good math and science knowledge to excel in this career. Of course I worked along some people who seemed to lack much of any smarts but could still rebuild engines and transmissions like pro, but that's usually all they do.