To Kenya for apprentices

TORONTO - Three Catholic students will be in Kenya this month building a school through their carpentry pre-apprenticeship program run by the Toronto Catholic District School Board and the Carpenters and Allied Workers Local 27.

The Grade 12 students will participate in construction from the ground up. They will build forms, pour concrete footings, construct stone walls and erect a wood frame. The trip to Kenya is an added extra for the students in the Ontario Youth Apprenticeship Program for which students take classes in the union’s training hall.

The Kenyan project will rely on old-fashioned carpentry skills rather than computer-based technology, according to Luciano Di Loreto, program project leader for the TCDSB.

The point of the 15-year-old partnership between the carpenters’ union and the Catholic school board is to get students ready for good jobs in the construction industry. The opportunity to serve poor communities overseas is something new, but could become an annual event if this year’s trip is successful, said Di Loreto.