Medicine Hat High School student Linkin grew up with close family members who worked in the trades. He liked the work and the lifestyle, and as he got older, he knew it was a path he wanted to pursue. By working with us through the Registered Apprenticeship Program, he is working towards that goal, all before graduating high school.

The Registered Apprenticeship Program (RAP) allows students to begin apprenticeship training in the trades while completing their high school education. Students receive course credit and gain hands-on experience in their chosen field, all while accruing hours towards becoming a journeyman.

Linkin’s Experience: From Classroom to Skilled Trades Apprenticeship

Linkin joined our team as a RAP student in July of 2023. Since then, he has worked with us to learn the ropes and gain practical experience that will help him build towards a career in the trades.

“During the summer I would get there around 7:45 and we’d get parts, hop in the van, and go from job to job fixing ACs.” Linkin notes. “Since I’m back in school, I’m only here during the afternoons. Some days I’m doing training, some days I’m doing maintenance, or I’m out with the journeyman doing service calls.”

Regardless of the day’s tasks, Linkin is gaining practical skills and real-world experience that go towards his journeyman certification.

 

Balancing School and Apprenticeship: Scheduling for Success

Part of setting up a successful RAP placement involves working with the school to create a schedule that works for both the business and the student.
Darren Klein, a teacher at Medicine Hat High School, is often involved in this process.

“We’ll work with the student’s timetable to find something that works best for the student and the business,” Darren notes. “And that way everybody’s happy.”
Finding a schedule that ensures students can gain enough apprenticeship hours within the operating hours of a business requires a bit of fancy footwork. But Darren has found there’s almost always a solution to be found.

“Businesses continue to be excellent to work with,” Darren notes. “They want what’s best for their business and they want what’s best for the kid. And those two things are often the same.”
That was the same story when they approached us, with Darren noting that “they were easy to communicate with, forthright in their expectations of what they were looking for and what they needed, and the whole process was easy to facilitate.”

 

Investing in Youth: Preparing the Next Generation of Tradespeople

At the end of the day, this program provides students with the opportunity to pursue a career in the trades and gives businesses a chance to train a strong talent pool for the next generation of tradespeople.

This fuels Darren’s passion for RAP. “There’s a whole pile of people out there who are my age and are going to retire in the next five years,” he notes. “And unless people my age that are in the trades train up young people, we’re in trouble.”

The mutual benefit of RAP ensures talented young people like Linkin learn directly from established tradespeople. This not only preserves vital trade skills but also ensures a legacy of knowledge and expertise that continues long after the current generation retires.

 

A Head Start in the Trades: The Impact On a Young Apprentice

Our team at Pad-Car has worked with other local schools to host RAP students over the years. Seeing our in-house training of young people

translate to the successful completion of their apprenticeship and journeyman certification is always rewarding, and we’re excited to continue guiding the next generation of tradespeople in their early careers.

For Linkin, who knows what he wants to do and is excited to get started, he has the chance to learn directly from industry experts. “I’m not one to really sit back and watch.” Linkin shares. “I’d rather be hands-on as much as I can until I feel like I need to step back and take notes.”

Now that he’s several months into his RAP placement, Linkin is getting career experience that most young people don’t get until after graduation.
“There’s a lot of working involved, which is nice,” Linkin notes. And of his time with us at Pad-Car Mechanical, he shares that “everyone is very knowledgeable about what they do and willing to help each other out.”

To other students considering if RAP is the right program for them, Linkin thinks they should go for it. “Even if you don’t take up a trade after high school, you still learn a lot of valuable lessons, from work to life,” he shares. “And you get to see a lot of incredible things and do stuff most people aren’t doing in high school.”