What is STEP?

The Sandwick Technical Education Project is designed to provide students with a realistic work environment, and allowing for certification and tickets in areas such as the Fork Lift Operators License. Participants will acquire generic job skills such as working safely, showing initiative, following directions, staying on task, maintaining positive peer relationships and specific skill sets.

Precast concrete production takes place in a shop at the STEP facility. The work day is from 9:00 am to 2:30 pm. The work takes place around moving equipment and involves shovelling and lifting gravel and concrete, working with chemicals such as form release oil and concrete additives. Workers will be involved with moving finished concrete products. A packed lunch is required as meals are not provided.

Every effort is made to provide a safe working environment, however there are risks inherent in the activities undertaken.

Why Focus on Concrete?

We use the creation of a variety of contrete products as a path to the development of work skills for a number of reasons:

• builds basic employment skills
• allows students to develop safe workplace habits
• students have to think their ways through a project
• satisfaction of quickly seeing a project through to completion

These pages are new for us. We would welcome your comments and suggestions on ways to improve what we are doing. Thanks for your help.

For more information contact us at: 250-702-4136. (The same number also works for faxes.)

Page created October 2009 by Randy Grey, Rick Poulin and Stew Savard SD#71.