Taking industry research to a whole Nathan Parlee

Nate Parlee, an instructor within NWP’s Trades and Apprenticeship programs, recently went way beyond the classroom when he spent time observing and learning about the Electrician Apprenticeship program at Highbury College in Portsmouth, England.

Born and raised in northern Alberta, all of Nate’s training and experience as a Journeyman Electrician has been Alberta-based. His regional knowledge is invaluable when taking students through Alberta’s Apprenticeship and Industry Training program but left him wondering how institutions and instructors in other parts of the world tackle their curriculum. With the support of NWP administration, Nate reached out to Highbury College and was warmly welcomed to spend a day seeing how they do things ‘across the pond.’

“The first thing I learned is that there appears to be a universal type of person who is attracted to a career in the trades,” he says. “Like at NWP, the students at Highbury aren’t averse to the physical demands of the job and seem to prefer the hands-on aspects of their training. The instructors are similar to myself and my colleagues in that they are industry professionals who enjoyed the mentorship aspect of apprenticeship enough to make it their full-time job.”

One thing Nate noticed was that the cadence of the apprenticeship programs is different. Alberta apprentices usually work in the field for 10 months, followed by two months of school. In England, they work on-site four days a week, with the fifth spent in class. Nate figures this is likely due to Alberta’s geographic spread and the unlikeliness of apprentices being close enough to a school for them to travel there once a week. With the UK being nearly three times smaller than Alberta, but boasting 15 times the population, everything and everyone is much closer together!

Just as he had hoped, Nate came away with tangible learnings that he intends to integrate into his instruction. “When we do labs, we are primarily worried about the students understanding a concept – that’s the goal. I noticed that Highbury takes things a step further and challenges the students to estimate the time and materials required for the given task. These are critical on-the-job competencies and I think our students will benefit from learning more on how to best tackle this.”

As friendly and welcoming as everyone was, Nate shares that the trip did leave him with a renewed appreciation for some aspects of Alberta’s approach to the skilled trades. “It doesn’t seem to me as though the skilled trades in the UK receive the same degree of funding and support as we do from both our provincial and federal government. I also noticed less advertising encouraging careers in the skilled trades, and while I only spent time with one class, I didn’t see the same female representation as we are building here,” he says.

Back on Alberta soil, Nate looks forward to sharing what he learned on his trip with returning and future students. If you are interested in learning more about NWP’s apprenticeship programs, visit NWP.me/Apprenticeship or check out tradesecrets.alberta.ca.