Administrators for the region's vocational training program, Red River Technical Vocational Area (RRTVA), are already making preparations for the 2021/22 school year.

Director, Lane Curry, says applications will start to come in from the ten high schools in the region this week, with the first hard registration deadline Friday.

Curry notes the recruitment process looked a bit different this year because of the pandemic.

"We used to do a lot of grade nine tours in the month of March...which would mean the kids could get their nose inside and smell the baking and culinary programs, the diesel fuel (from the automotive and heavy equipment programs), and that's changed," he explained. "We've had to guide people to our website and use the videos that were created a few years ago. I have been able to do a couple of site visits to local school gyms and talk about the programs and share those videos, and then I'll do a few more this week virtually."

The annual Grade 8 Trades Camp, like the one that took place in January 2020, had to be cancelled this year as well.

Regardless, Curry anticipates similar registration numbers to previous years. Typically, the RRTVA receives about 500 applications each spring for the following school year.

Meantime, grade 10 students looking to dabble in trades education will no longer have a chance to sample different options before committing to a program. That's because the RRTVA is nixing its Introduction to Trades and Technology (ITT) and Introduction to Construction Trades (ICT) courses in 2021/22.

ITT included six weeks at each the Automotive Technology Program in Dominion City and the Auto Body and Welding programs in Morris for students in Red River Valley School Division and Border Land School Division.

ICT included 10 weeks of two introductory credits in both the Piping Trades program in Morden and in Carpentry in Altona.

According to Curry, only 21 students participated in the programs this year, compared to 80 who chose to go directly into specific programs. He notes, in some cases, students knew exactly what trade they wanted to pursue and enrolled directly into the course, while transportation challenges and staffing changes also led to reduced numbers. And while students in the full programs were allowed to keep attending class during the period of at-home learning this past winter, Curry noted those in the introductory courses were not permitted to be on-site, and he hopes this move will prevent any potential similar challenges in the future.

He noted, the credits earned in the introductory programs could not be used for overall program completion.