National Skilled Trade and Technology Week
What is National Skilled Trade and Technology Week (NSTTW)?
NSTTW is a key date in the annual Skills/Compétences Canada (SCC) calendar. The goal of this week-long event is to promote and host awareness raising events around the many career opportunities in skilled trades and technology in Canada. During NSTTW organizations from across Canada get involved with SCC in a “hands-on” way to promote skilled trades and technology careers to youth, parents and the public.
Why is it happening?
It is clear that skilled trade and technology careers are important for our economy and an excellent career path for many young Canadians. Yet many Canadians either do not know what trade careers look like or what they entail. This week of events and information is dedicated to raise awareness through insight into the career options available.
Skills/Compétences Canada’s plan is to work with its member organizations and partners to facilitate and host skilled trades and technology activities in regions across Canada, to engage business and political leaders in discussions about the importance of these careers for our country, to focus media attention on these careers and to highlight those individuals that pursued these paths themselves.
Goals
- Get Canada’s youth thinking about skilled trade and technology careers as a viable, interesting option.
- Get Canada’s youth to engage in projects/experiences involving skilled trades and technology, fostering conversations between industries, teachers and students.
- Engage with industry thought leaders and political decision makers creating a dialogue focused on the importance of encouraging uptake in skilled trades and technology careers to ensure that Canada remains at the forefront of competitive advantage in global economies.
National Skilled Trade and Technology Week 2021
There are many initiatives being hosted by our Member Organizations across the country. Here is a full list.
Mark your calendar for A Virtual Career Exploration
National Skilled Trade and Technology Week (NSTTW) is a key date in the annual Skills/Compétences Canada (SCC) calendar. The goal of this week-long event is to promote and host awareness-raising events around the many skilled trade and technology career opportunities in Canada. During NSTTW organizations from across Canada get involved with SCC to promote skilled trade and technology careers to youth, parents, career seekers and the public. This year, NSTTW will be held from October 31 to November 6, 2021.
Due to COVID-19 restrictions, SCC will be hosting the launch for NSTTW 2021 on a virtual platform. Join us on November 2 from 11 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. EDT for A Virtual Career Exploration. Register for FREE at nsttw.vfairs.ca. At this event, you can learn about careers in the skilled trades and technologies, interact with over 30 industry and education partners, answer trivia questions, check out our virtual stage and learn about the 9 Skills for Success. Student visitors can also enter an exciting contest for a chance to win a drone!
WHO SHOULD ATTEND?
- High School Students
- Post-Secondary Students
- Middle School Students
- Apprentices
- Teachers
- Career Seekers
WHY YOU SHOULD REGISTER FOR THIS EVENT
- Learn about career and education pathways in the skilled trades and technologies
- Interact with over 30 industry and education partners from across the country through text chat functions
- Answer trivia questions about how our partners use Skills for Success in their workplace
- Students can win some great prizes!
- Check out content on our virtual stage featuring industry and education experts
- Learn about the 9 Skills for Success
#NSTTW2021
Participating Partners
ABB
British Columbia Institute of Technology
Bunzl Safety
Canadian Armed Forces
Canadian Nursery Landscape Association
CBRE
ChatterHigh
CLAC
Compétences Canada
ConsuLab
CWB Welding Foundation
Dermalogica
Emerson
Festo Didactic
In-House Solutions
InkSmith
Lincoln Electric
PCL Construction
RIDGID/Greenlee
RV Careers
Sandvik Coromant
Skills Canada Collision Repair Program
Stanley DeWalt
Thomas Skinner/Gene Haas Foundation
UA Canada
Vale Canada
Volkswagen Group
Volvo Construction Equipment
It’s a Wrap for National Skilled Trade and Technology Week 2021!
- Skills/Compétences Canada (SCC) officially launched the 17th National Skilled Trade and Technology Week (NSTTW) on November 2 at A Virtual Career Exploration Event. This event brought awareness to parents, youth, educators, and career seekers about the incredible skilled trade and technology career opportunities that are available across Canada.
- At this event, we had over 350 students, 5 industry and education partners, several industry celebrities, SCC alumni and many of our Skills Canada Member Organizations in attendance. Students had the opportunity to learn about career and education pathways in the skilled trades and technologies, interact with partners through text chat, answer trivia questions, check out SCC’s virtual stage and learn about the 9 +1 Skills for Success. This year’s theme was Creativity & Innovation, one of the Skills for Success.
- Student visitors could also participate in an exciting contest for a chance to win a DGI Mini 2 Drone. Congratulations to students from Glenview School and Brown Public School in Ontario for earning the most points on our leaderboard challenge and winning a Drone!
- In addition, SCC in partnership with the RBC Foundation, held a panel discussion on Crushing Barriers to the Skilled Trades where participants discussed the misconceptions, best practices and required preparation when pursuing a career in the trades. This panel gave audience members a real perspective of a diverse skilled trade worker. Celebrity guests included Sam Effah, RBC Olympian, Sebastian Clovis, HGTV Celebrity and Siobhan Detkavich, Top Chef Canada competitor. This was followed by an engaging Q&A.
- SCC also shared inspiring content on their social media channels including SCC’s ‘I Love My Job’ video series where we highlighted careers in the skilled trades and technologies and featured several of SCC’s partners and alumni through TikTok and Reels style videos.Go to our YouTube channel to see these informative and fun videos on the six sectors.
At this event, we had over 2,000 booth visits and over 1,700 video views. In addition, 83% of attendees agreed or somewhat agreed that they learned about new career options in the skilled trades and technologies. Check out our event recap document to see the full stats on our Virtual Career Exploration event. This virtual platform will be open for another three months and SCC encourages those who missed this event to check it out by registering for FREE at nsttw.vfairs.ca.