Kelly Brochu is working at Okanagan College as Construction Trades Chairperson and previously as a vocational instructor for carpentry. Academically, Brochu has a Bachelor of Education from University of Alberta and completed the instrumentation and control engineering technology program at St Lawrence College. The combination of academic and technical training is what steers Brochu’s life journey and further resulted in obtaining Journeyperson Certification in both carpentry and scaffolding. Diversity has been widely explored over Brochu’s time in the workforce, and he has spent time in the Canadian Armed Forces, teaching at elementary and junior high schools in various areas, including a fly-in school in Northern Manitoba, working as a carpenter and/ or scaffolder, owning a construction business, working as a principal at a small island school off of Vancouver Island and for the last seven years, at Okanagan College, including recently joining the EDISJ Strategy Working Group. Living and working in so many areas and communities has pushed his passion to see people from any place or situation get the opportunity to not just learn but to understand that regardless of what came before, your new learning journey can start now and can be exclusive of what may have been an unsuccessful learning journey from the past.
Scaling Deep to Make Space for Females in Trades: Transformational Inclusion at a Community College