Cabinet making instructor shares his experiences with students
5/11/2010 10:09:50 AM
In 1984, Kelly Tompkins and his business partner, Hubert Hall, returned to Newfoundland to open Starboard Woodcraft Ltd., a cabinet making company based in Doyles on the province’s west coast. Fresh out of school they were both eager to get things rolling. Unfortunately, cabinet making was not considered a skilled trade in Newfoundland & Labrador, which made it hard to attract qualified employees.
It was then Tompkins decided the best way to strengthen the workforce was to do it himself.
“In a sense, I have been a teacher since we opened our business. Just about all of the people that we hired had to be trained from scratch. Even carpenters had to be trained because cabinet making is a very different type of work,” Tompkins says, referencing the trouble he had finding employees for his business.
Tompkins is originally from the Codroy Valley, so he was excited about moving home from Alberta to get his career off the ground. After being in the cabinet making business for 25 years, Tompkins now enjoys a different lifestyle as the instructor of College of the North Atlantic’s Cabinetmaker program at the Port aux Basques campus.
Tompkins and Hall were both pivotal in getting cabinet making established as a skilled trade in the province. Once they realized how difficult it was to find employees they approached the provincial government to try and get a training program created for the trade. After the trade was finally recognized in Newfoundland & Labrador, an advisory committee was set up to devise a plan for a cabinet making program. The business partners sat on this board.
Tompkins feels at this point in his life his role as an educator is quite fulfilling. He believes that it is rewarding to play a small role in how the trade grows and often incorporates his own experiences into his teachings.
“I really enjoy teaching students and passing down the information that I have gathered over the years, especially the information that is not in the text books. As an instructor your goal is to always keep the level of work being done in this province to a high standard - which is what we aim for.”
Since his start in the classroom, Tompkins has tried to stay informed of new techniques and tools of the trade to ensure that his students are well prepared for the workforce.
“[You] couldn’t ask for any better, the program got right into the basics of what you needed to know,” says Grant Strong, a 2009 graduate of the program who is presently working in the cabinet making field, and notes his employer said he was very well trained.
Tompkins says it’s all in how the trade is delivered.
“It develops and changes over the years. Even now, over the two years that I have been teaching the program… I’ve attended conventions, workshops and shows to make sure that I stay current.”
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Media Contact:
Roger Hulan
Communications Specialist
College of the North Atlantic
(709) 643-7938
roger.hulan@cna.nl.ca