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THE TRY A TRADE PROJECT:
In an Australian first, Central West Group Apprentices (CWGA) partnered with 9 regional businesses in late 2005 to launch an exciting project to address skills shortages in regional NSW and connect young people to future careers. The national skills shortage means future Tradespeople will be in demand in years to come and this initiative aims to train and keep skilled young people in our region.
Try a Trade allows students to have an interactive hands-on experience at various skill and trade areas. The displays are entertaining, informative and allow students to talk with local tradespeople, apprentices and TAFE teachers who volunteer their time to be involved.
CWGA has always had a strong local network of business and industry clients and works closely with high schools within the central west region. A partnership arrangement has been set up with high schools and central schools and key industry vocational education and training champions in order to deliver the Try a Trade Roadshow to schools.
In 2007 the roadshow was held on 55 days at 45 schools, with around 5000 students participate, and involved 350 tradespeople and apprentices.
The Skills to Schools Roadshow has been a huge success in 2008 with the truck having visited 27 High Schools in regional NSW towns with a total of 2,634 students ‘trying-a-trade’. The truck also visited 11 Metropolitan schools in NSW and ACT regions with a total of 2021 students having participated in the events. In total the TAT truck spent 56 days at local and regional schools in NSW and the ACT over a 6 month period
All Try a Trade events are run free of charge to students and the school. The Try a Trade Roadshow and truck concept is unique to CWGA. It allows the experience to be taken to each school in the region, utilise local employers and apprentices, and make the day an extremely attractive event on to the school calendar. Students are taken out of class for a period when they are fully devoted to rotating through the range of trade booths in operation.
The award winning Try a Trade grows from strength to strength and is role model for regional initiative.
The purpose of Try a Trade (TAT) is to address the skills shortage currently experienced in most areas of NSW, by connecting school students with local trades people to meet and discus the skills of the various trades.
There are industry representatives and tradespeople from different trades at each Try a Trade stand to instruct and give advice on how to enter that particular trade, what is involved, where the trade can take you, money earned etc.
The students are encouraged to ask as many questions they like about the trade. At the same time they will undertake an activity related to each particular trade to “try that trade”.
The students are under supervision at all times and usually split into groups of two or three to move around each trade.
Industry, Group Training Companies and the Local Community Partnership come together to promote trades to Year 9-12 students at High School.
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See what happens here.
Try-A-Trade is a practical hands-on project aimed at students ‘having a go’ at trades whilst on school grounds.
Try a Trade allows students to have an interactive hands-on experience at various skill and trade areas. The displays are entertaining, informative and allow students to talk with local tradespeople, apprentices and TAFE teachers who volunteer their time to be involved.
The Try a Trade Roadshow and truck concept is unique to CWGA. It allows the experience to be taken to each school in the region, utilises local employers and apprentices, and makes the day an extremely attractive event on the school calendar. Students are taken out of class for a period and their time is fully devoted to rotating through the range of trade booths in operation. Students learn about using tools and gain valuable skills by ‘having a go’ through the Try a Trade event
The safety and wellbeing of students, volunteers, teachers and staff is the main priority at a Try A Trade event. With this in mind we have developed an extensive Risk Management approach which includes the following,
- Thorough induction of students before commencement of each session.
- The Try A Trade area is enclosed ensuring ease of supervision of students moving from one activity to another.
- All students are required to wear Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), including enclosed shoes before entering the Try A Trade Area.
- All activities are supervised by at least on trades volunteer.
- All activities have their own Safe Operating Procedures which are explained to the students before they start that activity.
- A hazard identification and control worksheet (risk assessment) is available if required.
- Students are required to wear covered shoes when participating in Try-A-Trade.