 We need people in trades to keep the BC economy going. There's a lot of demand and a lot of money in the trades and there's going to be even more once, you know, the older generation retires. We need to develop our skills and talent to have a stronger BC. Hi, my name is Kristen Siemens. I am a automotive service technician in my third year of my apprenticeship at KPU. Before I got into this trade, I was a restaurant manager and I knew that it wasn't a forever career for me. So I wanted to go and re-educate myself in something that interested me. Something where there would be a big demand for in the future. I decided to go back to school and get into the trades because I knew there would be a lot of opportunity for me. BC is investing a lot of money into skills training for the trades. I knew I didn't want to sit behind a desk and I liked working with my hands. I had a passion for automotive and automotive made the most sense for me. I was around family members and friends and things throughout my entire childhood that really got me interested in vehicles and how they worked. I created this passion where I wanted to work on them and fix them and have the knowledge and experience to do it myself. I think it's important to upgrade your skills because you get a lot more practical knowledge and you get a lot of hands-on experience on the job but getting the knowledge and training from school is going to be really beneficial in the future. We are the future of BC. I feel really empowered to take on challenges and I find myself more willing to try things that I never did before because I feel like I have the confidence to fix them. That's something that I got through my training and through my experience. By the end of February, I'll be done all my schooling. I will have my Red Seal certificate and I'll be able to work anywhere in Canada. The only way to fill the gap out there is through skills training. We need to build a stronger BC together.