Why would someone want to be a chef? “You can create something every day. There’s also a great deal of satisfaction in feeding people — you make them happy. And you get paid well and can travel all over the world; any place in the world will have you, if you can cook. What a great profession.”

Why did the judges choose him to win? “Bruno has dedicated his career to sharing his expertise . . . and to the success of everyone who works for him. He is highly respected across the industry by his peers, employees, students and customers.”

Why did you nominate Bruno for this award? “Bruno is involved in every single aspect of the culinary profession — teaching, apprenticeship committees, national associations and culinary teams. He . . . gives all of his time, especially to young people interested in joining the profession.”

– Tobias Macdonald and Jane Ruddick, Bruno’s employees

By Wendy McLellan
Business Reporter

Bruno Marti is trying to stay out of the way in the kitchen. After more than four decades as a chef and countless awards for his cuisine, the energetic owner of La Belle Auberge still loves to cook and serve his customers, but he’s also helping his young chefs learn to excel at their trade.

“The first thing I did in my career was try to be the best cook I could be. The second thing I’ve done in my life is train a lot of cooks,” Marti said. “I focus on teaching them how to cook beautifully.”

Since buying a bankrupt restaurant in a Ladner heritage house in 1980 and turning it into a renowned destination for fine dining, Marti estimates he has trained more than four dozen apprentices in the trade.

At the moment, two of his five cooks are apprentices. His chef, Tobias Macdonald, was Marti’s apprentice 10 years ago, and some of the Lower Mainland’s top restaurants have chefs who learned their trade in his kitchen.

“They learn how to cook here,” Marti said. “This is like a school, rather than a business. They have time to make food perfect — there are no lineups, you’re not pumping the food out.”

As well as mentoring apprentices at his restaurant, Marti has devoted years to teaching young cooks how to win at culinary competitions. He founded the B.C. culinary team to take cooks around the world to compete, and his team won the world championship at the 1984 Culinary Olympics. He is also founder of the Culinary Arts Foundation.

It’s a pretty impressive list of achievements for someone who chose cooking because he didn’t have the grades to pursue a university education.

When he was in high school in Switzerland, students had to choose a trade if they didn’t have the marks to train for a profession. He didn’t know much about cooking, but he remembers hearing a woman bragging about her son who was a cook.

“My mother was a seamstress and never had time to cook, and I had done a little bit in the kitchen and didn’t dislike it,” he said.

“I didn’t choose cooking because of food — I saw adventure, an opportunity to be something without having academic excellence. As a cook, you are respected and I knew I could learn and be as good as anyone else.”

After finishing his apprenticeship in Switzerland, Marti went to work in a Swiss restaurant in Puerto Rico, then moved to Montreal to work in the kitchen of the Queen Elizabeth Hotel. It was when he got involved in competitions that he realized being a chef was about more than cooking — it was about food, and he wanted to be the best.

Marti began to develop his reputation as a meticulous chef and was offered a job creating meals for airlines. The job brought him and his family to Vancouver, where he honed his competition skills.

He was an airline chef when he was team captain for western Canada’s regional team at the 1976 Culinary Olympics in Frankfurt and has since travelled around the world with culinary teams. Macdonald, his onetime apprentice, is captain of Canada’s national culinary team.

“It’s a great life,” Marti said. “Everything I ever wanted came true. It tells me you can be whatever you want to be. But whatever you do, do it to be the best.”

FINEST IN THEIR FIELDS

This instalment concludes The Province’s tribute to B.C.’s 2008 Top in Trades award winners. The Industry Training Authority has partnered with The Province to create the awards, which celebrate excellence in the trades and encourage young people to consider these careers by sharing inspiring stories of success.

Kyle Evans works as an apprentice at Beaver Manufacturing. (Murray Mitchell - for The Province)

By Wendy McLellan
Business reporter

Kyle Evans was intrigued by welding the moment he first saw sparks flying, but his abilities at math kept him focused on a business degree — until he picked up a torch.

“In high school, I always wanted to try welding, but I shied away from it because of my handicap,” said Evans.

“I remember being 15 or 16, driving with my parents and seeing a guy up on a silo, welding. It looked so interesting. That image really sticks in my brain.”

Evans has cerebral palsy, which limits his mobility and strength, “but I can always figure something out. I’ve known nothing else,” he says.

After graduating from high school in Kamloops, he started working on a finance and business degree.

He was in his second year when he decided to pick up the torch.

“My uncle had been a welder and he told me to give it a try. I just loved it,” Evans said.

“There’s something about it — the sparks, the smoke, fusing metal together. I quit studying for the degree and I’m never going back.”

Evans threw himself into his training as a welder and is halfway through his apprenticeship, working at Beaver Manufacturing in Kamloops. He has a couple of years of training to go, and he’s hoping to become a journeyman.

“I may have some problems because of my handicap, but I hope I can do it,” Evans said.

His current work at the industrial manufacturing company involves welding a variety of equipment.

But some of the work at the higher levels of apprenticeship training involves co-ordinated, precise movement with both hands, which may be difficult.

Rolling pipes may also be a problem, he said.

Still, Evans is optimistic and said he will keep training for his trade until he can’t progress any further. He has just received his Level C stamp and signed up to begin his B Level training.

“Whenever I get to weld, I’m happiest,” he says. “I thought I would be an accountant because I was good at math, but I fell in love with welding.

“When I pull my helmet down and see that puddle, I get this euphoric feeling. It’s kind a zen thing.”

Damon Schricker is only 19, but he’s already known as a millwright who stays with any job until he’s figured out how to fix the problem. (Nick Procaylo - The Province)

By Wendy McLellan
Business reporter

You could say Damon Schricker was born to be a millwright.

“It’s kind of in my genes,” Schricker says.

His grandfather was a millwright, and his father and an uncle are also in the trade which involves installing, repairing and maintaining machinery and mechanical equipment.

Still, when he finished high school, he tried to fight genetics and become an electrician.

“But there was a three-year wait to get into the program at BCIT, so I went in for millwright instead.”

His father, a manager at Freybe Gourmet Foods in Langley, helped him get summer jobs at the company when he was still in high school. Then a month after graduation, he was hired as a millwright apprentice.

“I like it here,” Schricker says. “I’ll be staying here awhile. You’re not doing the same thing every day — there’s always something different.”

Although he still has two years left of his apprenticeship training, Schricker has also completed his certification as a 4th Class Power Engineer, achieving top marks in the BCIT course.

That effort allows him to operate and maintain equipment such as boilers and refrigeration units that are used in industrial plants.

“He’s doing quite well,” said Schricker’s dad, Dirk, who supervises his son’s work at Freybe where they maintain the machinery used to produce the company’s deli meats and sausages.

“He likes to troubleshoot, and he doesn’t give up.”

He is not surprised by his son’s abilities with machinery and his interest in the trade.

“He’s always liked to tinker with stuff and help around the house,” Dirk Schricker said. “He’s also good at electronics.

“He sees that I’ve done quite well, and his uncle, too. We’ve never been out of work, and he sees that, too. And he gets treated really well here.”

Damon Schricker is only 19 years old and hasn’t contemplated the future yet.

At the moment, he plans to finish his apprenticeship and then see where that takes him.

“I have a steady job, it pays well, and it lets me watch hockey and go fishing,” he says.

“The only hard part is waking up early. I have to be at work by 6 a.m. so I get up at 5:15. That’s pretty tough.”

Why would someone want a career as a cook? “It allows you to be very creative. It’s also very gratifying — when you feed someone, you make them happy.”

Why did you nominate Melissa for this award? “She constantly strives for high standards, and is a great supporter of local producers and community events. She employs several women and is a great leader as well as a great inspiration for all young cooks.”

– Gilbert Noussitou, Melissa’s former instructor

By Wendy McLellan
Business Reporter

When she was 10, Melissa Craig made caesar salads with her own secret ingredient for family dinners. As a teen, she enjoyed feeding her family, taking cooking classes in high school and watching food shows on TV.

But when she was deciding what to pursue after Grade 12, she didn’t think about becoming a chef.

“I was going to go to school to be an elementary-school teacher,” said Craig, who was raised in Duncan on Vancouver Island. “Then right before I started college — I was already enrolled — I changed to cooking.

“I don’t know what made me do it, but it was the best decision I could have made.”

She began her training as a cook at Malaspina University College, making breakfast on weekends at a little café in Duncan to help pay her way through school. When it was time to begin her apprenticeship, Craig moved to Sooke to work in the kitchen of the renowned Sooke Harbour House and finished her schooling at Camosun College.

“It was a great experience,” she said. “It was all local, seasonal, regional food and everything was done from scratch. That first year, I cleaned a lot of fish.”

In 2001, she competed in a national competition for apprentices and won, becoming Canada’s top apprentice of the year.

After finishing her four-year apprenticeship, Craig left Sooke and spent a season at a high-end fishing resort on B.C.’s coast, then spent a year in Australia.

“I cooked the whole time, first in a restaurant in Sydney and then in a couple of different smaller restaurants along the east coast,” she said. “And I ate everywhere. Experiencing all that food was eye-opening.”

When she returned to Duncan, she knew she didn’t want to stay on Vancouver Island.

“I was about to start at Lumiere, but the Bearfoot Bistro contacted me and I went up for an interview and it all went from there.”

Instead of working at one of Vancouver’s top restaurants, Craig chose the sous chef position at the five-star restaurant in Whistler. That was four years ago. Now she’s executive chef.

This year, the 28-year-old won the National Gold Plate Award in the 2008 Canadian Culinary Championship, beating some the country’s best chefs for the honour.

She works long days in the kitchen.

“I’ve worked really hard at my trade, but a lot has come out of it. It’s all falling into place.”

Steve Como started working at Teck Cominco right after high school, and is now the safety co-ordinator. (Photo by Val Schillaci - Trail Times)

By Wendy McLellan
Business reporter

As a pipefitter, Steve Como can easily see the results of his work at Teck Cominco’s huge smelter. It’s not so easy to see the impact of his work as safety co-ordinator.

“I hate to see someone hurt at work,” Como said. “I like to think I have a role in preventing it. You never know if you make a difference, but you try your best to make it as safe a work site as you can.”

He began his apprenticeship after spending the year after high school graduation as a trades helper at the plant. At the time, he didn’t have a plan for his future.

“I liked the work and the people I worked with. They encouraged me to take the trade. There was miles and miles of pipe and no shortage of work for pipefitting. I thought it was a pretty secure trade to go into.”

He enjoyed running new pipelines, troubleshooting and maintaining the complex system of pipes at the smelter. At the same time, he was active on the company’s safety committee.

When the job of safety co-ordinator opened up 15 years ago, he was elected to the role, which is managed by the United Steelworkers Local 480.

“It was a good opportunity,” Como said. “I like working with people, dealing with problems and helping people. My trades background, my understanding of the tools and equipment comes in handy.”

He has acquired several safety qualifications. He provides safety training to new employees and is responsible for talking about safety with the 50 or more students hired at the smelter every summer.

Although he has been safety co-ordinator for as long as he worked as a pipefitter, he wouldn’t hesitate to go back to the tools if he had to.

“There is a real sense of accomplishment and satisfaction,” Como said. “You get to use your head and work with your hands.

“The beauty of it is that the trades give you opportunities to get into other things. You can choose another path.”

For Como, the path has led to another satisfying role in safety.

“I really like my work, and helping to make this a safe workplace. In heavy industry, there is a lot of potential for injury,” he said.

“Getting hurt at work is so awful — it’s devastating for the worker and their family. If I can have an impact on that, it’s rewarding.”

Avionics engineer Carlos Carvalheiro-Nunes at work at Vancouver International Airport. (Nick Procaylo - The Province)

By Wendy McLellan
Business reporter

Carlos Carvalheiro-Nunes has a passion for planes, but he’d rather not fly them.

When he was a kid, he attended local air shows and was entranced by the movie Top Gun. But while most people watched the flying, Carvalheiro-Nunes was more interested in the aircraft. “I never wanted to fly — I just wanted to fix them,” he said.

In high school, Carvalheiro-Nunes completed a few of those quizzes that attempt to link your natural interests with career possibilities. Each time, the answer was the same. “It started in Grade 10. The questionnaires kept saying I should be an aerospace engineer.”

So he followed the quiz results and moved right from high school to BCIT to study avionics. “I have a real passion for aviation and I’m really good at electronics, and the two seemed to fit perfectly together,” Carvalheiro-Nunes said.

The trade involves working with every device on an aircraft that has wire attached to it, including navigation and communications equipment, autopilot and inflight entertainment systems.

Avionics has been a perfect fit for the Delta father of three boys. His first job took him all over the country installing on-board radar systems designed to prevent mid-air collisions. Then he moved to helicopters and he travelled some more, working with various helicopter companies and on an aircraft rescue crew dispatched to wherever they were needed. He fixed Bill Gates’ helicopter once, and spent 10 months completely rewiring a Sikorsky S76.

“I rewired it from scratch,” Carvalheiro-Nunes said. “It was 29 days on, one day off for 10 months, but that was very interesting work.”

In 1996, he joined Air Canada as part of the line maintenance crew responsible for the service checks before the aircraft take off again, and worked his way up to the lead position on the ramp.

“You take on a lot of responsibility. You have to sign off on the aircraft and with 300 passengers at 20,000 feet, you can’t just pull over to the side of the road if something goes wrong.”

At the moment, Carvalheiro-Nunes is working on an aircraft “extreme makeover” project, leading a team of workers who are ripping everything out of aircraft cabins and installing new interiors including seats with built-in entertainment systems.

For Carvalheiro-Nunes, the best part of his work is figuring out a problem and fixing it, especially when everyone else has given up. “I love how difficult it can be,” he said. “There is so much complexity. And every single day, you go on to an aircraft and there’s always something new, a twist, an element of surprise.”

Seventeen-year-old heavy duty mechanic Levi Rouble checks the valves on a D8 to see if fuel is leaking into the oil at Macro Industries in Fort St. John. (Photo by Hardy Friedrich - Special to The Province)

By Wendy McLellan
Business reporter

When Levi Rouble is out in the field, he works nearly ’round the clock, looking after the equipment his company needs to build pipelines for B.C.’s oil and gas industry. He wouldn’t want it any other way.

“I like the job,” says the 17-year-old apprentice mechanic. “I’m young, and I’m not just a labourer. I have a good spot and I get treated pretty well. It’s kind of like my dream.”

As a field mechanic for Macro Industries in Fort St. John, Rouble runs a service truck his company dispatches along 60 kilometres of pipeline under construction to repair machinery that does the heavy lifting. Sometimes he’s assigned to the shop in town; when he’s in the field, he sleeps in a camp.

“You work as long as you can stay awake,” he said. “You have to work until it’s done, and when you’re responsible for 25 pieces of equipment, sometimes it takes all night. You can’t have equipment not working during the day, so you fix it good enough to get through the shift, then wait until night to do it right. It’s kind of fun.”

Rouble is in his second year of training as a heavy duty mechanic, but he has been tinkering with equipment since he was eight years old.

“I’ve been doing this ever since I was young, working with my dad and grandpa,” he said, adding his father owned a brush-cutting company. “It’s what I know. I take stuff apart, fix it, put it back together.”

He was 14 when he started working for Macro Industries, and he entered the Secondary School Apprenticeship Program in Grade 11 to get started on his trades training.

He has already completed the required 6,000 hours for his apprenticeship in heavy duty mechanics as well as the first two levels of technical training. According to his high school trades teacher, Rouble has excelled in his chosen field and achieved 95 per cent in the school trades apprenticeship program. He graduates from Grade 12 next month.

“I thought I better choose what I would like to do and start getting ahead,” Rouble said. “I always wanted to have my own service truck, and this is pretty close. The company has been good to me. I’m always working.”

Rouble is still young, living at home and just finishing high school. At the moment, his plans are to stay in the North, but he has years of opportunities ahead with a skilled trade that is in high demand.

“My future plans? I don’t want debt, I want to pay for everything. I want to work, and when I’m done, I want to retire and just live. No stress.”

VCC’s Mario Trettenero (right) with students Gerson Gonzales and Luis Ramirez. Wayne Leidenfrost photo — The Province

Category: Educator

By Wendy McLellan
Business Reporter

Mario Trettenero didn’t follow the most direct route to his trade, but he clearly remembers the moment his journey began.

He was 14 years old and working for his godfather, who owned a gas station and a garage in Woss Lake, a tiny community at the north end of Vancouver Island. His godfather had a contract with a local logging firm to paint their vehicles and equipment.

“He asked one day if I wanted to learn to paint and of course I said ‘yes,’ and I watched him and listened,” Trettenero said. “When it was my turn, he handed me the spray gun and I’ll never forget the feeling — it felt like an extension of my arm.

“I was hooked right there and then.”

Despite the instant connection with the paint gun, Trettenero wasn’t sure which trade to pursue; he was only sure he wanted to work in the trades. The only apprenticeship program his high school offered was in heavy-duty mechanics, so he signed up.

“I excelled at it, but it wasn’t really something I wanted to do,” he said. “I was offered a job as a heavy-duty mechanic, but I was 18 years old and I didn’t want to stay on Vancouver Island. I wanted to explore a little.”

So Trettenero moved to Vancouver to work in his brother’s nightclub. Five years later, he was bar manager; he was also married with a two-year-old son.

“I knew this was not a lifestyle that was conducive to raising a family,” he said.

He decided it was time to go back to the trades and although he was well on his way to a ticket as a heavy-duty mechanic, he recalled the moment with the spray gun and enrolled, instead, in an automotive painting program.

Trettenero spent five years with his first employer, then moved to a larger shop where he could work more and earn the money to pay for the mortgage, family vacations and future education costs for two kids.

At 30, he took a four-year break from the trades and operated a business with a partner, processing and packing fish caught by sports fishermen.

“I’m a real fisherman and I love the ocean and I wanted a change in my life,” he said. “I learned a lot, but I was working seven days a week. I wanted to go back to the trades and what I truly love.”

A year after going back to the autobody shop, one of his former instructors from the automotive painting program suggested he consider going back to school to teach his trade. It only took a day to make the decision.

“This was an opportunity to give back, to make a difference, Trettenero said.

Five years later, he was head of VCC’s automotive collision repair department. His new goal is to pursue a master’s degree and work toward becoming dean of a trades program at a post-secondary institution.

Trettenero’s advice: “Follow your heart, take the opportunities that come up, and love every single second of it.”

Joe Elworthy (right), from the Coast Mountain Bus Company, and Dave Vallely of the Canadian Auto Workers Union, Local 2200.

Category: Innovation

By Wendy McLellan
Business reporter

With an expanding fleet and an increasing shortage of skilled mechanics available to keep them on the road, Coast Mountain Bus Company, TransLink and the Canadian Auto Workers Union, Local 2200, created a unique program to entice students to join the company before they are even ready to be apprentice mechanics.

“We’re thinking outside the bus,” Dave Vallely.

Vallely, director of fleet maintenance for the bus company, said the pre-apprenticeship program is the result of a partnership between the company and the union and allows the company to hire students from college entry-level trades training programs, then prepare them to become apprentice commercial transport mechanics.

“There aren’t enough mechanics out there to supply the growth mode we’re in,” Vallely said. “We could go looking for apprentices, but it’s easier to bring them in as pre-apprentices.

“We bring them in as pre-apprentices and by the time they finish, they know how to work in the shop with other mechanics.”

Joe Elworthy, president of CAW Local 2200, which represents bus-company employees in the trades, said his members were reluctant when the idea for the program was broached.

“They were worried it could become a source of cheap labour,” Elworthy said. “But when it comes to training and apprenticeships, the union and the company have the same goal — we all want good-quality people and to pass on information and expertise.”

After a year of planning, the program started three years ago, bringing in nine to 12 pre-apprentices a year.

After about six months, they move into apprenticeships in the trade. At CMBC, apprentices learn to be commercial transport mechanics, but they are also trained to work on the specialized vehicles that make up Metro Vancouver’s transit system, including the new million-dollar trolley buses and hybrids.

“We’re attracting the brightest students from the colleges,” Vallely said. “It’s a very competitive world out there and we’re getting the top students.

“And they are really trained — they learn every part of the business.”

It’s an expensive initiative — the company is paying wages for more than a dozen pre-apprentices they hadn’t hired before.

“But it’s worth the price,” Vallely said.”If we don’t have a steady source of people, we don’t have buses on the road.”

The company’s next initiative is to open a fleet overhaul facility in Maple Ridge, which will be linked to BCIT’s planned new heavy equipment campus, where students will learn their trade alongside CMBC’s experienced mechanics.

Name: Coast Mountain Bus Company and Canadian Auto Workers Union, Local 2200.

Category: Innovation.

Location: Metro Vancouver.

Award-winning initiative: Apprenticeship and Pre-Apprenticeship Program created with a partnership between the company and the union.

Number of pre-apprentices to be hired this year: 16.

Number of apprentices currently employed: 48.

Why did you nominate the two employers for this award? “CMBC and CAW 2200 have nurtured a very co-operative approach to the delivery of apprenticeships, and have instituted a unique joint partnership. This co-operation has resulted in success for both.” — Buzz Hargrove, national president, CAW-Canada

Why did the judges choose them to win? “By implementing a training model that includes opportunities for young, pre-apprenticeship students as well as apprentices, the joint board of the bus company and the CAW 2200 has succeeded in creating a strong training culture and career opportunities.”

Category: Services, Tourism and Hospitality

By Wendy McLellan
Business Reporter

When Andrew George Jr. started his training as a cook, all he wanted was a job in a kitchen.

It may have seemed like a reasonable goal for a poor high school graduate from a tiny northern town. But George’s passion for cooking has taken him a long way from that first job in a little downtown Vancouver restaurant.

And after working as a chef in top hotels, travelling across Canada and Europe, winning at the Culinary Olympics and writing a cookbook, George has taken on his biggest challenge so far: He’s teaching entry-level cooking skills to low-income aboriginal students at Surrey’s Kla-how-eya Aboriginal Centre and hoping to inspire them to continue their training in the trade.

“If I could do it, anybody can,” George said. “At the beginning, I just wanted to get a cooking job, but it opened so many doors.

“Cooking is not just a job, and it’s not a career. It’s a lifestyle. It’s also a profession of honour.”

George is part of the Wet’suwet’en nation and grew up off reserve in Telqua near Smithers. There was no running water and his family lived off the land.

“My mom taught me to cook over an open fire,” he said. “I just loved that. I remember being five years old and standing at the stove making bannock. My parents were both working and there were six kids — somebody had to cook.”

In high school, George took cooking classes and after graduation he travelled to Vancouver to study culinary arts at Vancouver Vocational Institute, now VCC. His first job was in a little restaurant that served native Indian dishes, which led to an offer to be head cook at the First Nations pavilion at Expo 86.

He was 23 years old.

Expo visitors lined up for hours to sample local native cuisine and the response gave George the idea to specialize in the traditional foods of his culture. He worked as a chef for the Chateau Whistler and the Four Seasons Hotel in Vancouver and also spent three years serving his own recipes at his restaurant in the Vancouver Aboriginal Centre.

That led to a spot on a winning team at the World Culinary Olympics.

George’s career has also taken him to Europe as part of a Canadian tourism team and provided the opportunity to travel across the country to native lodges teaching chefs how to cook specialized aboriginal dishes. He has also written a cookbook of his aboriginal fusion recipes, called Feast, which was published in 1997.

“I tell my students that as aboriginal people, they have a niche that is new to the industry. Our cuisine is very old, but it’s brand new to the market. My goal is to expose it to the world.”

In 2006, George was asked to leave his home near Smithers and take over the culinary arts training program at the Surrey aboriginal centre. Students who complete the 16-week program, including working in local hotel or restaurant kitchens, will hopefully continue on to VCC’s culinary arts school and apprentice as cooks.

“You have to set goals for yourself,” he said. “Nobody is going to give it to you — you have to do a lot of hard work, but if you have it in you to dream, you have it in you to succeed.”

Photo by Nick Procaylo - The Province

Category: Transportation and Automotive

By Wendy McLellan
Business reporter

He hasn’t even put out a sign yet, but Brad Halco’s new repair shop is already full of trucks awaiting his attention.

It’s a pretty clear indication the 29-year-old has picked the right trade.

“I’m full to capacity,” Halco said. “I think I have a very good reputation in the industry.”

In high school, Halco excelled in automotive mechanics, but after graduation his first plan was to pursue a trade in welding or metal fabrication.

“My first love is building things,” he said. “I was always helping my father work around the house, but I found out there’s a lot more money in commercial transport repairs, and it turns out I’m good at it,” he said.

“I like everything with an engine in it — cars, trucks, boats. I figured I could do something with it.”

The first thing he did was a four-year apprenticeship as a commercial transport mechanic and two years later, he was promoted to shop foreman responsible for delegating tasks to mechanics and ensuring the work was done well for his Burnaby employer. A couple years later, he found the right place to open his own shop.

“I had been looking for a location to open my own shop and a building became available, so I went into business,” said Halco, who opened Dieseltech in April.

“I’ve always loved to move ahead and not stick with one job. I set goals and move on, and I knew that I’d want to have my own business.”

With his father as a partner behind the scenes to look after the financial details of operating a small business, Halco is free to work with tools and manage the shop.

“It’s working out wonderfully. There’s lots of work and we are very busy,” he said. “Engines are constantly evolving with technology — it’s a continuous learning battle to absorb all the changes in the industry.”

His shop has five bays for heavy trucks and enough work to keep 12 employees very busy. For most new business owners, that would be plenty to think about for the first few months, but Halco is also committed to training and has hired four apprentices who are learning the trade.

“I’m a firm believer in apprenticeships,” he said. “If we don’t bring up younger mechanics and train them, there will be no one to do the job in the future.

“And if someone hadn’t taken a chance on me, I wouldn’t be here today.”

Halco said he takes pride in getting every job done right, and with safety in mind.

“My high-school mechanics teacher was a role model and he was big on safety and doing things the right way. I guess I’m following his lead.”

Owning his own business means long hours in the shop and working seven days a week, but Halco is not complaining.

“I love it,” he said. “When you’re working for yourself, it’s exciting. I think this is pretty much going to be my life for a while.”

Photo by Wayne Leidenfrost - The Province

Category: Construction

By Wendy McLellan
Business reporter

Matthew Stevenson’s passion for the trades has taken him a long way from the tools, but now he helps others find work in the industry he has loved since he was a teenager.

“You need to have passion. If you’re doing work as a means to an end, get out,” Stevenson said.

“I’ve got a passion for the trades and getting people into the trades.”

Stevenson began his career as a winder electrician apprentice in Scotland when he was 15 years old, following in the family tradition of pursuing a trade.

“I always wanted to go into a trade,” he said. “I knew I would pretty much be employed and I wanted security, so I picked a trade that is in demand all over the world.”

After a five-year apprenticeship learning to maintain, test, rebuild and repair electric motors, transformers and other electrical components, Stevenson travelled to work in Britain, Saudi Arabia, the U.S. and finally, in 1977, Canada. He became service manager for a company in Grand Prairie, Alta., then moved to B.C. 10 years later to become foreman of a company’s electrical department.

“It’s one of those trades that allows you to work pretty much anywhere, and when the economy is up or down, you can transfer the skills to different jobs — and the bonus is, you earn a lot of money.”

Stevenson is passionate about his trade, but he’s also committed to learning. He went back to school to earn a certificate as an adult educator, then worked as a career counsellor for the construction industry trades. He went back to school again and earned a master’s degree in adult education from Simon Fraser University in 2001.

“I’m a believer in lifelong learning to advance your career,” he said. “But if everything fell apart, I could still go back and get a job as a winder electrician. They always need qualified, capable people to do it.”

Currently, Stevenson is working with new Canadians, introducing them to the trades, highlighting the options a career in the trades can offer and how to transfer their skills into trades training.

For the past two years, he has worked in the BC Construction Association’s Immigrant Skilled Trades Employment Program (ISTEP) which helps immigrants access employment in construction and the trades. In that time, he has worked with about 800 immigrants and placed, directly or indirectly, about 500 workers in construction-industry jobs.

As well, he works with agencies in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside to place people from the community on job sites or to give them the technical training they need to get jobs on nearby construction sites.

“These are people with challenges, but we meet with them, evaluate their skills, provide support on the job site and coach them to try to get them into trades apprenticeships,” Stevenson said, adding 19 workers from the community are working on the Olympic Village site and there are plans to place 40 or 50 more in the coming months.

“There is so much to do to make Canada better for everyone. I think I contribute just a little to that.”