BROCK HOUSE RECEIVES HERITAGE DESIGNATION IN SPECIAL CEREMONY Mayor vows once-desirable neighbourhood g will improve { Page A4 }
times Chilliwack
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THURSDAY, MAY 29, 2014
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Davy says sorry to his school
➤ PLEASE HOLD! Apprenticeship waitlist numbers as of April 23, 2014 (more applications expected between now and September) Construction electrician 102 students on waitlist* 54 program spots available over the course of the 2014/15 academic year Welding foundation 89 students on waitlist* 40 program spots available Sept. 2014
Hopes Greendale community will one day forgive him for child porn activities
{ See PLEASE HOLD!, page A6 }
BY PAUL J. HENDERSON phenderson@chilliwacktimes.com
W
{ See DAVY, page A6 }
UFV unable to keep up with demand for skills training BY DESSA BAYROCK Special to the Times
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ast month the B.C. government announced plans to increase support for trades and apprenticeship programs at both high school and post-secondary levels, aiming to fill an estimated one million jobs by 2022. Meanwhile, UFV’s Trades and Technology Centre (TTC) is filled to capacity, with many accepted stu-
Trades training, trades waiting
dents sitting on waitlists for trades programs. The longest waitlists are for the construction electrician and welding foundation programs, which stand at 102 and 89 students respectively. For a student accepted into in a high-demand program, this can mean waiting a semester—or more—for a spot. And by the time a spot opens up, that student may have moved on to something else—unable to supply
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ith hands shaking and holding back tears, convicted child pornography distributor John Patrick Davy read a statement in Chilliwack Provincial Court Tuesday directed in part at the community of Greendale and the students of the elementary school where he taught for years. Davy was in court for the fourth day of a sentencing hearing that began March 27 after he pleaded guilty Feb. 19 to possession and distribution of child pornography. He was arrested last May with more than 27,000 digital sexual images of children as young as toddlers. In an unusual move in a courtroom attended only by the Times and Davy’s mother, the 44-year-old asked to address the court before his lawyer began submissions. “For the past four years, I was privileged to teach the top grade in a small country school in the western reaches of the Chilliwack district,” Davy read from a prepared statement, one that he later asked his lawyer to give to the Times. “The community is tightly-knit by a sense of shared values of faith and
students with training when they want it, B.C. loses out on skilled workers. “Many of them will have applied last year for their spots,” says Rolf Arnold, director of faculty of applied and technical studies at UFV. “When we are filling classes now, we will find that some of those people have changed their minds, gone elsewhere, or taken some other training in the meantime.” “If the funding was available, we’d
SHOP OUR ENTIRE PREOWNED INVENTORY NOW WITH
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be adding classes immediately,” Arnold notes. “But we are, as all other areas are, under budget restraints and budget cuts from the Ministry of Advanced Education.” If students land on a waitlist, Arnold suggests looking into complementary programs offered at TTC, which can help lay a foundation of understanding when they do get into their program. { See WAIT LIST, page A6 }
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