Graduating and Specialist High Skills Major students Maddi Campbell (left) and Alexis Martin were invited to speak about their experience in the program, at an appreciation breakfast, May 31.

Hub Staff

The Saugeen District Secondary School’s Specialist High Skills Major (SHSM) training was the topic of discussion over an appreciation breakfast, catered by Southampton's Little Black Dog, May 31, at Saugeen District Secondary School (SDSS).

SHSM is a Government of Ontario program that gives students an opportunity to match their skills and interest with their chosen career path while obtaining of their high school diploma.

Two of the program’s top students, Maddi Campbell and Alexis Martin, shared their trade success stories as Principal Melissa McEwan, guidance councillors, program teachers and local community partners discussed future opportunities and goals for the program.

Currently 67 senior students are in the program, including 38 males and 29 females for the 2015-2016 school year. Student enrolled have the opportunity to graduate with a Red Seal and gain four sector-recognized certifications: Standard First Aid, CPR Level A, WHMIS, and Automated External Defibrillation training courses. As well as three electives including, Hoisting and Rigging, Pipeline Construction Safety, Radiation Safety, CWB Welding, as well as a co-op placement.

Maddi Campbell, whose focus is off-site construction, informed the group of all that she has done throughout her enrolment in the SHSM. From renovating the airport washrooms, to helping to build an outdoor classroom, she is ready to apply for apprenticeships with an impressive portfolio. “All of these qualifications are very good because I think they will help me get into an apprenticeship,” said Campbell. “This has been a really good opportunity and I really enjoyed it.”

Classmate, Alexis Martin, now has many qualifications through the SHSM and completing a Bruce Power Co-op placement helped her get accepted into the Instrumentation program at Lampton College in Sarnia. Martin began her placement on the Bruce B Fix it Now team (FIN) and then switched to Bruce A during the Unit 4 outage, where she learned feeder inspections. Martin was able to take a two-week course in Cambridge for certifications to be able to work at Bruce Power and said that the courses through the SHSM were covered.

“These certificates are between 300 and 1,000 dollars, so for a student, it’s a little over budget, so it defiantly helped me for that, because the courses that I applied to for college needed some of these (certifications),” Martin said.

“I have a jump on some people [at Bruce Power] as there are some people that I worked with that don’t even have the qualification that I have. So it’s kind of awesome that I get to go through all that stuff at such young age,” added Martin.

Teachers Keith Day (Science, Greenhouse), Bill Madden (Manufacturing, Auto Tech) and Bud Halpin (Construction) spoke to community partners, thanking them for their current and future help with finding students placements within their companies; as well as donations. Updates were also offered on current and future SDSS projects, both in school and around the community.

Keith Day’s Greenhouse class successfully sold 105 plants to both Business Improvement Areas (BIA) and spent every Thursday in May selling flowers from their greenhouse.

Bill Madden’s group successfully made a car that raced around the track at SDSS and succeeded in putting together an electric car, though there were some bugs still to fix with that project that kept it out of competition. Madden knows the importance and the upcoming rise of electric vehicles and will shift a strong focus in that direction.

Halpin has been involved in many community and town projects over the years, from the Southampton band shell, the accessible beach boardwalks, the outdoor classroom at École Port Elgin Saugeen Central School, to the new airport washrooms. Halpin is focussed on safety first, like all SHSM teachers at SDSS; and recently completed a Working at Heights training course, a year long process that included seven days of training.

“We’re certainly the first school in the board (to do the training) and the guy that trained me said I was the first high school teacher he had going through for that, so we’re ahead of the curve on safety,” said Halpin.

Alexis Campbell completed her Co-op placement at Bruce Power. The images show her doing feeder inspections during a mock-up practice as part of her training.

The Saugeen District Secondary School’s greenhouse grew and sold 105 plants to both Business Improvement Areas. The plants will line the streets of both Southampton and Port Elgin.