Grad celebrations on the Sunshine Coast kicked off with 10 students being recognized for their efforts in completing the ACE-IT program during a celebration event at the Habitat for Humanity Sunshine Coast Village project in Wilson Creek last Friday afternoon.

Family, friends and members of the board of trustees from School District No. 46 (SD46) were on hand June 22 for the recognition ceremony that honoured students Cullen Hodges, Priscilla Ahlrep, Quinn Paul, Jeremy Poulsen, Erika Petty, Andrew Edgar, David MacDonald, Morgan Knutson, Dominic Windsor and Luke Roose.

Accelerated Credit Enrolment in Industry Training (ACE-IT) offers the ability for students to begin work experience and training in a certified trade while still attending high school in SD46. Overseen by the Industry Trades Authority, students complete their work under the supervision of a Red Seal certified tradesperson/teacher in partnership with Vancouver Island University.

The goals of ACE-IT include: providing students with a smooth transition from school to work, enhancing students’ existing trade-specific job-readiness skills and providing opportunities for the development of new skills, providing students with the opportunity to obtain a level one technical training certification in a given trade, and helping prepare students to enter the world of work with the skills, attitudes and sense of responsibility necessary to be successful.

“The district is striving to offer a variety of programs for our students as we recognize that not all our learners go off to university,” said District principal Phil Luporini. There are a variety of post-secondary choices that perhaps our students might consider in the future … if they only knew about the possibilities. In some cases, we are able to provide opportunities for our students to explore career options while obtaining both high school credit and post-secondary credit.”

Teacher Carl Brownstein marvelled at the students’ work ethic and what they brought to this year’s program.

“In the 20 years of working with students and 40 years building construction myself, this is the best group that I have ever worked with,” Brownstein said. “They came in with a quiet, studious manner and tackled their book work and took any task we gave them to completion. When they delivered the sheet rock for this project, it was an entire semi-truck and these kids hand carried everything inside the building. It showed their excellent work ethic. I’ve never worked with a group that has been this hard working, and it sets a new standard for the next group of students coming into this program.”

The Habitat for Humanity Sunshine Coast Village project was the base of operations for the program.

Habitat executive director Ron Pepper spoke of the great partnership Habitat has with SD46 and thanked the students for all their hard work.

“You’ll have a sense of pride for the work that you have done on this site when you look back on it in the years to come,” Pepper said.

“We’ve built three homes now and six units here, all built with the help of SD46. This has been a great partnership for us and I’m sure good for you as well. Thank you so much for your help and we look forward to working with you again maybe as a volunteer for Habitat in the future.”