REGINA — Saskatchewan Youth Apprenticeship (SYA) Industry scholarships have been awarded to 110 graduating high school students from 77 communities across Saskatchewan.
The scholarships are overseen by the Saskatchewan Apprenticeship and Trade Certification Commission (SATCC).
SYA Champions, the educators who oversee the SYA program in their schools, nominate students enrolled in the program who plan to pursue careers in the skilled trades. A selection committee of SATCC staff members chooses the winners based on students' responses in the nomination form. Students outline how SYA has benefitted them, their current experiences with the skilled trades and their education and career plans following graduation.
Scholarships are redeemable for $1,000 each. Students can redeem them within two years of graduation by registering as an apprentice in Saskatchewan and completing Level 1 technical training or by completing a recognized pre-employment program in a trade designated in Saskatchewan.
Berkley Regier, one of the recipients, graduates from Maverick School in Swift Current this year. He already works in construction.
"I love learning how to be better both physically and mentally, and working in the skilled trades brings new challenges every day and allows me to always learn new things," Regier said.
"I am grateful for the opportunity that the SYA Industry Scholarship has given me because it will help me achieve my goal of pursuing an apprenticeship in the construction sector."
To complete SYA, students work through 12 challenges — everything from interviewing a journeyperson to researching and writing a report on a designated trade to outlining the steps to journeyperson certification. All students who complete SYA and register as apprentices in Saskatchewan within five years receive significant benefits: 300 trade hours, plus the waiver of their apprenticeship registration fee and Level 1 technical training tuition.
"It is important we promote careers in the skilled trades as first-choice careers," Saskatchewan Apprenticeship and Trade Certification Commission CEO Jeff Ritter said.
"The SYA program gives all participants who enter the apprenticeship system within five years tangible, valuable benefits and the SYA Industry Scholarship is one more incentive to help attract graduates into the skilled trades."
The SYA Industry Scholarship program launched 15 years ago. Since then, more than 1,300 scholarships have been issued. Sixty industry sponsors, including employers, industry associations and unions, as well as the Government of Saskatchewan, have invested $1.2 million total into the SYA Industry Scholarship fund.
There are currently more than 3,200 students registered in the SYA program across the province.
For more information on the SYA program, please visit: .
