FERGUS – The inaugural “Trade Tracks” trade show and symposium was hosted at the Centre Wellington Community Sportsplex on May 5 and 6 by the South Wellington Community Lions Club.
More than 1,500 students from 14 school boards arrived by bus to attend the outdoor event last Friday, including 44 high schools as far as Burlington and Owen Sound.
At least 100 trades were represented at the show, encouraging youth to get involved.
“The misconception has been around for a long time that trades are dirty, low paying, and are really, really hard work,” said Carl Gray, who co-founded the event with fellow Lions Club member Peter Robertson.
“Today, we saw a lot of kids learning that that’s not the case.”
Gray worked as an electrician for nearly 50 years and believes it’s important for students to fill the roles of retiring tradespeople.
“The province of Ontario is going to be scrambling to find tradespeople in the coming years. If we don’t start training these kids now, we’re not going to have anybody to train them,” he said.
Youth engaged with interactive trade simulators at the Trade Tracks event on May 5 and 6. Photo by Chris Zimmerman
“We hope to show young people the great careers that are available in the trades. There are 144 trades in this province. If you have a passion for doing something, there’s probably a trade you can make a great career and a great living at.”
Among the exhibitors was the Horseshoeing School of Canada, owned by Paul Fischbach.
“I started the school about three years ago,” Fischbach said. “I hear a lot that today’s youth don’t want to work anymore. I disagree with that. The youth do want to work, but they need to know what’s out there.”
Fishbach has been working with horses for 40 years and trains young people how to trim, shoe and care for horse hooves.
He was pleased with the turnout and gave a live demonstration of how to shoe a horse on Saturday morning.
Even though there was a steep learning curve for organizers with this year’s show, the decision has been made to move forward with it as an annual event.
“One of the benefits of working in trades is that you start earning money the day you start your career,” Gray said. “You’re not in university racking up debt. You can pursue what you love to do as a career … It’s becoming economically beneficial to be a tradesperson.”
For more information about trade tracks email tradetracks.swcl@gmail.com.
