A West Vancouver mother is outraged over a recent letter sent out to schools and parents.
Cheryl Cameron said she was surprised when she received a letter inviting Grade 12 and some Grade 11 students, including her son who attends Rockridge secondary, to an Liquefied Natural Gas conference in Vancouver this week.
The letter, sent out to superintendents across the Lower Mainland by deputy minister of education Rob Wood, is an invitation to a "Youth Experience for middle and secondary school students featuring workshops that develop team skills and provide hands-on activities to learn more about pipefitting, scaffolding, operating a crane, excavator and welding with a simulator."
Cameron said she had no problem with schools offering kids the opportunity to check out the trades. "I think that's fantastic. They should be bused over to BCIT or any of our trade institutes that teach those particular skills because kids need to be exposed to every opportunity of course."
But having the workshops in conjunction with the LNG conference was not the right place for them to be held, she said. "The whole LNG industry, as being proposed by the government, is highly controversial.
"Our kids need to be given very objective and unbiased information at school. We want their information to be based on the latest science and unbiased research. It is industry and it is progovernment people who are speaking at that conference."
The LNG conference workshops are "a good educational opportunity for students interested in a future career in the trades," said Bev Pausche, manager of communications and community engagement at the West Vancouver school district.
Pausche said the district strives to provide an array of learning options to high-school students, from trades and arts, to Advanced Placement programs and sports academies.
West Vancouver secondary has an ACE-IT carpentry program and an automotive program, for example. "So there are a number of students there with an academic interest in trades training," she said.
In a B.C. Teachers' Federation press release sent out late last month, BCTF president Jim Iker said he was concerned that, in the provincial government's rush to maximize potential profits from LNG it may be limiting educational opportunities for the upcoming generation of students.
"We believe that all students, no matter where they live, should have access to the full range of academic courses as well as applied skills, including trades training," said Iker. "When I look back on the range of options in arts, sciences, and technical programs that students used to have, it's a sharp contrast to today. We need to build those choices again for our students."
Cameron said that trades training for students should be done in a technical manner, not towards a particular effort, such as LNG. "Our kids need to be global citizens and they need to get information on what's going on everywhere," she said.