“I started with running a daycare, then I taught elementary school, and now I’m working with adults,” Tina Caputo says happily. Happy, smiling and enthusiastic are the best ways to describe Tina’s first few days at the Skills Centre. She’s our newest project specialist and is eager to start working with clients.
You could certainly call Tina a local. She grew up in Fruitvale, went to high school in Rossland, and now lives in Trail. She’s been very involved in minor hockey for the past seven years in various roles and currently is the West Kootenay governor of U15.
“I quite like it. It’s one of the highlights of the day for me,” she says of her hockey commitments.
Tina has been an elementary teacher on call for the past six years and brings her experience in education as well as on the teachers’ union board to her new role.
She will be working primarily with our new Emerging Tech program for youth ages 17 to 29. She has taken extensive training at Selkirk College in their computer information systems program and has experience working with teens. She also delivered the Applied Design Skills & Technology curriculum in local elementary schools for a year. The ADST program included introducing kids to Tinkercad, virtual reality programming and 3D printing, all technologies that youth might want to explore in Emerging Tech.
“It’s exciting to be at the start of a new program and help people become more comfortable with a new technology,” she says. “Often when people are reluctant about something it’s because they don’t understand it. Once they try it and become comfortable learning it, that changes.”
Tina will be helping young people with intakes for Emerging Tech through the summer with training starting in September. If you’re interested in exploring the latest technologies and how they’ll help you in your career, contact Tina today.
