Okanagan College carpentry students bring their skills to the Shuswap community

Okanagan College (OC) Carpenter Foundation students are no strangers to rolling up their sleeves and getting to work beyond the shop floor.

This year, students framed a duplex for Gardom Lake Kids Camp and Retreat Centre near Enderby, and constructed 30 raised garden beds for the Shuswap Food Action Society’s John McLeod Memorial Garden in Salmon Arm — real projects that put technical skills to work while contributing to community infrastructure.

The project at Gardom Lake Kids Camp and Retreat Centre — a summer camp and outdoor education facility serving children, youth and school groups — will provide sustainable housing for campers and staff. For the OC students, it delivers something harder to replicate in a controlled setting: the experience of building a real structure from the ground up.

“Projects like this are some of the most effective training tools available,” said Brent Moffat, trades administrator at the Salmon Arm campus.

“Building a house in the field isn’t a side activity. It directly delivers some of the most important components of a trades curriculum — applied technical competencies, project-based learning, safety training, construction planning and sequencing, quality control. On a real build, students deal with weather, site conditions, scheduling, inspections and unexpected problems. That’s where true learning happens.”

Moffat adds that completing an actual structure gives students a sense of ownership that shapes their professional identity.

“They’re building something real while practicing their skills and developing critical soft skills that employers consistently look for: teamwork across multiple trades, communication with supervisors and clients, time management and problem solving on the fly.”

“It has been fantastic to work alongside this group and see them thrive in a practical, hands-on learning environment — applying classroom teaching to a real-life building project,” said Executive Director of Gardom Lake Kids Camp and Retreat Centre, Rikk Kieft. “This collaborative project strengthens our ability to serve the larger community by creating sustainable housing for our campers and staff and helping develop the next generation of construction workers. We look forward to continuing this partnership for years to come.”

Carpenter Foundation students also built 30 raised garden beds for the John McLeod Memorial Garden — a collaboration between the Shuswap Food Action Society and the Shuswap Agricultural Association that supports the community’s efforts to increase household food security and build food resilience in Salmon Arm. The project gave students practice in finish-quality carpentry and project coordination while contributing to a worthwhile community initiative.

“Employers in the skilled trades want people who can walk onto a job site and contribute from day one,” said OC’s Dean of Trades and Apprenticeship, Caitlin Hartigan. “Projects like these in the Shuswap help close the gap between the workshop and the field where students learn to analyze a real site, adapt to real conditions and deliver results. This is the kind of preparation that gets people hired and helps them build lasting careers in the skilled trades."

OC's Carpenter Foundation program introduces learners to all aspects of the construction trade including the use of hand tools, portable power tools and residential wood-frame projects. Graduates obtain the hands-on training needed to enter the construction industry or continue into an apprenticeship.

For more information about carpentry and other skilled trades programs at Okanagan College, click here.