* Planermill course students from B.C. Interior and Coast successfully

challenged TQ test in January, using the classroom facilities of the FRBC
Value-Added Skills Centre in Abottsford.

TQ test being challenged
by experienced planermen

With all of the hard times the for-
est industry is going through, work-
ers are filing through transition
centres by the busloads. As the
industry remains in a slump and
tries to climb out of the tank, it’s
hard for workers to make up their
mind on what to do and what to
train for.

For experienced planermill tech-
nicians there is an opportunity to
become a certified technician by
taking two weeks of educational
instruction and challenging a Trades
Qualification (TQ) test.

Since 1994 the province of British
Columbia has recognized planer
mill technicians as a certifiable

trade with full apprenticeship pro-
cedures.

_ Existing planermill technicians
are “grandfathered” into their jobs
and can challenge the TQ test at
the time of their choosing. By doing
so it gives them the trades ticket

needed to get employment in other
operations.

Planermill technician course Lev-
els I and II are being offered through
the College of the Rockies which is
located in Cranbrook, B.C. In recent
times the course has come to the
Coast of the province and has put
on a two week preparation course to
write the TQ.

Perry Taylor, Instructor of the
Planermill Maintenance Program at
the College of the Rockies in Cran-
brook, B.C., is working with the
Forest Renewal B.C. Value-Added
Skills Centre in Abbotsford, about
100 km. east of Vancouver, to deliver
the course to workers from the Coast
and some Interior regions.

By using FRBC facilities costs are
cut back and more workers have
access to the course.

“They can challenge the govern-
ment TQ any time they want but
it’s always a good idea to take a two
week upgrade which will prepare
them for the exams,” said Mr. Tay-
lor, in an interview with the Lum-
berworker. “The big thing is that a
lot of these guys have been out of

school a long time, some over 20
years and this gets them ready to
write a test.”

In the courses there are 12 sub-
ject areas including hydraulics,
pneumatic pressure, gear science,
couplings, bearing, seals, planer
alignment and planer set-up.

“It covers everything in a trade so
that if a planerman is working from
the infeed to the outfeed,” he said.

Taylor said that 90-95% of those
who take the course get a passing
grade.

“People who tackle the TQ on their
own have a harder time getting
through it,” he added.

If a worker challenges it and fails
then he/she has a second shot a min-
imum of 6 months later. A second
failure will send them through an
entire apprenticeship course.

“So a lot of people are saying you
might as well go for the two week
course and do it right the first time,”
said Taylor.

Planermill Technician I deals
with overlooking the planer and
doing things like ordering parts,
and preventative maintenance.
Level II deals with the worker doing
the set-up, knife grinding, and run-
ning the planer,etc.

Since the courses began in mid-
1995 almost 100 planermill techni-
cian have gone through the courses.

The classes for those challenging
the TQ are all theory, since the
workers have the practical experi-
ence.

Peter Vogt, Manager at the FRBC
skills centre (see story this page)
said that there is more demand for
trained technicians in planers oper-
ations.

“It (the TQ) helps to give the
worker the security,” he said. “With
the way the industry is now, if you

have a TQ qualification you can go”

to another operation.”

Because planermill technicians
are recognized as a ticketed trade,
the employers need to hire workers
with their TQ or have an in-house
apprentice.

Studying hard at the course was Local 1-424 member David Bigcharles.

Course can offer career boost

For laid off Local 1-3567 member
Ron Arnold, writing the TQ for Plan-
erman J and II is an important step.
He, like many others in the B.C.
forest industry, has been unem-
ployed for months on end. Late last
year the planer he worked on at the
International Forest Products West-
minster Wood Products sawmill,
went from two shifts to one.

He doesn’t know when or if he’ll
go back to work there.

After going through an FRBC for-
est worker transition centre and a
career assessment course which
pinpointed his aptitude and skills
levels, Arnold enrolled for the TQ
upgrade.

“I wanted to take advantage of it
as quickly as I could,” said Brother
Arnold, in an interview with the
Lumberworker. “I don’t want to lose
the fact that I have all this knowl-
edge behind planers and not be able
to be ticketed.”

He has been working in the planer
since 1980 and thinks the upgrade
courses are good ones.

“They are good courses with a lot
to be learned in a short time. If
you’ve been in the trade it helps a
lot because it deals with what has
changed in the planer end of things,”
he added.

Arnold said that planermill jobs
should have been designated as
qualified trades many years ago.

“You have to be truly knowledge-
able to operate these machines,” he
said. “There’s so many factors and
safety factors involved with them
and you’re also dealing with preci-
sion (equipment).”

Local 217 members Glen Hogg
and Don Reelie, from MacMillan
Bloedel’s Canada White Pine Divi-

sion, agree that the TQ upgrade is
worth it.

Brother Hogg, who has 13 years
in the Vancouver mill and 7 years
in the planer, said that “with the
TQ you can just about go any place
in the province.”

“The way that some mills are shut-
ting down, I might have to go up
north,” he added. “This gives me
more knowledge in areas I need
strengthening in.”

Thirty-one year veteran Don

¢ Laid-off Local 1-3567 member Ron
Arnold studying for the TQ test.

Reelie, who has 22 years in the
planer, said that the course will
help him trouble shoot in areas like
hydraulic problems. The course is
more detailed than the training he
took is the past.

In the late 80’s MB sent him down
the Cottage Grove, Oregon for a
planer course.

“Basically what we did was take
apart a Stetson Ross 610 (planer)
and put it back together,” he said,
“There was some theory work but
not as much as in this TQ course.”

Reelie said the course is a good
one because it is written in lay-
terms for workers. He said that
short self-help tests help the indi-
vidual find the areas they have to
brush up on.

I.W.A. Local 1-424 member David
Bigcharles, from the Canadian For-
est Products mill in Fort St, John,
told the Lumberworker, that he
gives the courses a thumbs up.

He particularly picked up more
knowledge on planer alignment.

“T would definitely recommend
taking the courses. The theory really
helps a lot,” he said. “It gives a guy
a better understanding of what he’s
doing.”

FRBC value-added skills
centre marks a big year

The way Forest Renewal B.C.
money has been spent to date has
been the subject of many criticisms,
including the I.W.A.’s. One bright
shining light within the jurisdiction
of the agency is the operation of
FRBC Value-Added Skill Centre in
Abbottsford, B.C. which has
exceeded its first year goals of train-
ing workers.

The centre fired up operations in
October, 1997 and has reported that,
in its first year, it has reached 300%
of its mandate, having put nearly
five hundred people through it after
having a target of 125 people a year.

“Tt really caught us by surprise
that there was such a big need for
training in the value-added area,”
said Peter Vogt, manager at the
centre, in an interview with the
Lumberworker. “It (the first year of
operation) has been an incredible
success,” added Vogt. “We're really
impacting the industry and filling a
need. We seem to be here at the
right time.”

FRBC has set the centre up with
about $10 million in funding for a
five year period but that is based on
125 students per year.

“If we put through 500 people a
year then we have to come up with
money from other places,” said Vogt.

As of late January the centre had
provided 804 student weeks of train-
ing to students from different regions
of B.C., including the Pacific regions,
the Thompson-Okanagan, Omineca-
Peace, Kootenay-Boundary, the
Cariboo Chilcotin, and Skeena-Bulk-
ley.

A Student Access Fund, paid for
by FRBC, has paid nearly $300,000
to date to offset lodging, food and
travel costs outside of the Vancou-
ver-Hope corridor.

There are 18 week-long training
modules on five different areas of
value-added production: Basic Wood
Manufacturing, Gluing Technolo;
Profiling Technology, Sawing Tech.
nology, and Surfacing Technology.
The most popular courses to date
have been Basic Wood Technology,
Basic Gluing and the Moulder 1
course.

The courses are set up to be deliv-
ered as 80% practical and 20% in
the classroom.

The student will receive a “Wood
Machinist Certificate” for the com-
pletion of any two modules and is
awarded a “Master Wood Machinist
Certificate” upon successful comple-
tion of all five training modules.

Continued on page fourteen

LUMBERWORKER/MARCH, 1998/13