VIU Trades & Tech Showcase Welding Simulator
What: Trades & Tech Showcase and Heavy Metal Rocks 2025
When: Heavy Metal Rocks: Thursday, May 1 and Friday, May 2.
Trades & Tech Showcase: Saturday, May 3
Two events happening this week aim to give prospective students a chance to experience what working in different trades careers might be like.
VIU’s annual Trades & Tech Showcase lets everyone explore careers from welding to hairstyling to web development and more.
Working with your hands, tools and big machines can pay off in a big way and starting your career in the trades can sometimes take less than a year of post-secondary training. Trades and technology occupations remain among the top projected job openings in BC, said Glynis Steen, Dean of VIU’s Faculty of Trades and Applied Technology.
“VIU offers numerous programs that help people land careers in the trades, upskill and even reskill current workers,” she said. “We have trades programs at the Nanaimo campus, our Cowichan campus and our tiwšɛmawtxʷ campus, which is in Powell River. We also have our technology programs that are definitely helping to fill the increased demand for people knowledgeable in this field, including in this region.”
The showcase, in VIU’s Trades Discovery Centre on Saturday, May 3 will give people an opportunity to try their hand at operating a mini excavator, flavour their own kettle chips, try a welding simulator, build a wood planter and fill it with strawberry plants or even taste liquid nitrogen ice cream, plus much more. Visit the event homepage to learn more and sign up.
In the leadup to the showcase, local high school students have been invited to get in the cab of some big and small machinery at Heavy Metal Rocks, a two-day event that runs May 1 and 2 at the university’s training site in Cassidy.
VIU Heavy Equipment Operator instructor Kevin Levins said career prospects in this industry are high – for example, an estimated 5,140 new heavy equipment operators will be needed across BC over the next decade, according to the BC Labour Market Outlook. It is one of the top 10 occupations by job openings in the construction trades.
“Even with a short time in the seat, giving students the opportunity to experience heavy equipment firsthand can be incredibly impactful,” he says. “It helps spark their interest, builds a sense of confidence and provides a clearer roadmap for what a future in the industry could look like. That initial exposure can be the spark that motivates them to pursue further training and see themselves in a skilled trade career.”
Media are welcome to attend. Email Annette.Lucas@viu.ca to secure a pass to Heavy Metal Rocks.
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Media Contact:
Annette Lucas, Communications Officer, Vancouver Island University
C:250-618-7296 l E: Annette.Lucas@viu.ca | W: news.viu.ca
The VIU community acknowledges and thanks the Snuneymuxw, Quw’utsun, Tla’amin, Snaw-naw-as and Qualicum First Nation on whose traditional lands we teach, learn, research, live and share knowledge.