By Bird Bouchard
While demand for machinists jobs remains high, a local vocational training centre is seeking more students to sign up for their program.
In 15 months, students taking the machining program at the Lennoxville Vocational Training Centre (LVTC) are taught how to read, produce, and work from simple and complicated blueprint drawings while working on a variety of computer numerical control (CNC) and conventional machines along with hand tools.
The program places students in a real-life learning environment as they have more than 700 hours (40 per cent) of their learning done in the industry, leading to students having the opportunity to be paid while attending school and on stage.
“Students start training, obtain a job and get paid for both,” said LVTC machining teacher Gilles Phaneuf, who added some students are being paid up to $30 an hour while in the program.
According to the machining teacher, nearly anyone can sign up for the machining program as there’s no prior skill set required to take the program. He explained many students have never even used a screwdriver and have gone on to do well in the program and obtain a job.
