2024 TRU Training House kicks off

KAMLOOPS– A woodcutting ceremony kicked off the 34 annual Thompson Rivers University training house.

“I think that this is probably the best education you can get for carpentry,” TRU carpentry student Rylee Arthur told CFJC News.

First-year carpentry students have started the groundwork for this year’s training house.

The annual project is a collaboration between TRU, the Kamloops YMCA and the Canadian Homebuilders Association Central Interior.

TRU carpentry students are given the opportunity to build a house from the ground up.

Once finished, the house is known as the Y-Dream home and raffled off in a lottery benefiting the Kamloops YMCA.

“This project, the kids will come away with, they’ll know how to do a foundation, they’ll know how to prep a slab, they’ll know how to frame a house,” Tom Calne, CHBA Central Interior president said.

“They’ll know how to climb a ladder, they’ll know how to get up on a roof. This is perhaps one of the most important methods of training young trades.”

In addition to the hands-on experience the training house provides, TRU instructor Tim Kasten said students finish the program, fully understanding their future industry.

“I’m giving them a taste of the real world, so it is hard, physical work, its responsibility but it so rewarding,” Kasten said.