Through my life I have realized that change is constant. At 13 I thought I wanted to be a Mechanic, at 16 I thought I wanted to be a Network Engineer, at 19 I was a mechanic, and still am to this day, but things still change.

In my adult working life I started as an aviation mechanic, but wanted to try new things, so I switched gears a bit moved in to commercial transport and officially started my apprenticeship as a Heavy Duty Mechanic. I was living in Edmonton, but met my now wife, and decided it was time to move back to my home town on Vancouver Island.

I took my first year of trades training towards my Read Seal as a Heavy Duty Mechanic, and at some point through those 10 weeks my instructor mentioned to me in passing “you could do this Kyle”. Unsure of exactly what he meant he went on to say “teach Kyle, I think you could instruct one day”. This put the bug in my ear, but I didn’t think much of it.

After my first year of trades training I realized where I really wanted to be was working on off highway equipment, so I began working in a shop that deals with manufacturing and rebuilding logging equipment for the forestry industry.

A few years of work and trades training later, I was in my final year of training, and my instructor put the bug in my ear again about instructing in the future. This time it stuck.

I’ve always known being a Heavy Duty Mechanic will be hard on my body, and eventually I’ll need an exit plan to do something else so I can enjoy my later years in life. Instructing had never occurred to me, but many years in mechanical fields, and two years as a Red Seal Endorsed Heavy Duty Mechanic, here I am taking the steps to set myself up for that path.