3M Canada’s Peter Wrong performs a qualitative bitter test on pre-apprentice trainee, Hamsa Abdelnaser
3M Canada provides support and safety to pre-apprentices
Trainees at the Tropicana Pre-apprenticeship Training Program for Auto Body Collision and Damage Repair completed the first leg of the 2017 schedule with a gift and equipment training from 3M Canada.
“We’ve been supporting the program for the last five years, donating the masks and the time for the fit testing, so they’re all properly prepared,” said Peter Wrong, Account Manager at 3M Canada’s Automotive Aftermarket Division.
Wrong provided the 19 trainees with a tutorial and helped them perform a qualitative bitter test on their new protective respirators. He sprayed a bitter substance into the Fit Test Hood covering the respirators, which the students could taste if their respirators were not fitted properly. The testing process will prevent contamination once the students begin using the equipment on the job, Wrong explained.
“3M’s involvement with the program has helped develop our students and also make them aware of the importance of safety in the shop,” said Marc Tremblay, Program Coordinator.
“They come out to events like this and get our guys ready with the equipment, give them the extra training and product demonstrations — we can’t say enough good things about 3M.”
Academic Instructor Achim Krull and several program trainees
The session was held in late May, on the final day of the academic upgrading module of the pre-apprenticeship program which prepares trainees for the college level.
In June, the students began the second part of the program, a 12-week auto body skills training course at Centennial College that includes welding and painting methods. They are then placed at a body shop, where participants will be registered as an apprentice and work for a period of time before getting their call back for “Level 2,” said Tremblay.
After completing three levels of their apprenticeship training, the trainees will receive their red seal and become licensed auto body technicians.
“The students are going to be working with technical equipment, measuring angles, understanding calibration equipment; some have been out of school for a little while, so we’ve sharpened them back up,” said Achim Krull, Academic Instructor for the program.
Krull has been with the program for the last seven years, is the author of a consumer math textbook and once ran an alternative school.
He said several companies “have been good to the program” donating time, food and equipment. “The sponsorship for the program has been absolutely amazing.”
“It’s a huge thing for 3M, as a company that supports the automotive industry so strongly and proudly, to support programs like this heavily,” said Wrong.
“I’d like to work at a body shop like Brimell Toyota — it’s a really good looking dealership,” said program trainee, Hamsa Abdelnaser.
Abdelnaser has been in touch with a graduate of the program who works at the Brimell Group Paint and Collision Centre in Scarborough, Ont. “He says it’s amazing,” explained Abdelnaser.
