Grand Forks students got a chance last week to get some hands-on learning experience with a variety of potential career paths, when the WorkBC Find Your Fit tour stopped off at Grand Forks Secondary School.
Classes took turns touring the stalls that showcased the skills needed to thrive as an electrician, a mechanic, an early childhood education worker, a dietician and may other careers, each one set up with interactive options – mechanics tinkered with gears, physiotherapists had fitness equipment, but inevitably, said tour manager Vi Phan, there’s always a line-up at the airplane pilot station.
“The hope for us is to pique interest, passion and build confidence,” said Phan.
While some of the exhibits are due for an update – WorkBC is currently redesigning its technology station and the computer station (which was last updated in 2014) – the pilot setup, a realistic flight simulator used by schools to train future flyers, is always a draw.
Parked in one of the two captain’s chairs after the showcase opened to the public last Thursday evening, Grade 7 student Peyton Beliveau watched his stunt plane whiz over a digital landscape. Though Beliveau said he was a bit disappointed that there were no stations for train engineers, airplane pilot was the next best thing.
Sat beside him was Grade 9 student Kyle Kimmel, flying the Wright brothers’ original biplane.
“I’m so happy to have a simulator,” Kimmel said. While he participated in an open house at the Grand Forks Airport last spring and got to fly in the front seat of a plane alongside a pilot, opportunities to see and feel the controls of a plane are rare, so the opportunity to entrench his passion in a future career path were well appreciated.