Jumpstarting a career in electric vehicles

Province of British Columbia

Conall Argue works with electric vehicle engines alongside classmates in Camosun's Electric Vehicle Technology and Service program

While some automotive technicians credit their childhood fascination with cars or their formative years helping parents in the garage with getting into the trade, Argue didn’t start working with cars until he decided to take a chance on an intro course in high school.

“My dad was a software engineer and my mom is a preschool teacher, so I wasn’t really around cars or anyone who worked fixing them growing up,” he says. “After taking a few introductory courses I saw that this could be the right path for me, and being able to start early really helped that.” 

Graduating high school in 2015, Argue was already on his way as an Apprentice Automotive Service Technician thanks to the South Island Partnership between Camosun College, Southern Vancouver Island School Districts and local industries. The program, which allows students to complete their first year of trades training while still in Grade 11, lets students graduate early with a head start in their career path.

Starting at Camosun, Argue credits instructor and program leader Patrick Jones with influencing his decision to pursue what was, at the time, a less common interest in the field.  

I hope that others who are early in their careers, or are just out of school take advantage of EV training. What we see on the roads has changed so much over the past ten years, it’s an exciting time to start

- Conall Argue, Camosun College alumni and Electric Vehicle Technology and Service program graduate

“I was really lucky to have Pat as my instructor. He went a lot deeper into electric vehicles than other instructors would have, and expressed such a huge amount of interest in the future of automotive,” says Argue. “I kept asking Pat, ‘When will there be an EV course?’ and finally the seed just grew from there.”

As a student in one of last fall’s Electric Vehicle Technology and Service program pilots, Argue completed the one-week intensive that gave him and other technicians the opportunity to learn how to safely work with the high-voltage vehicles’ batteries, run diagnostics, test motors and more.

“Lots of the technicians in my course had been in the automotive industry for a long time and looking to expand on what they can work with,” says Argue. “I hope that others who are early in their careers or are just out of school take advantage of EV training. What we see on the roads has changed so much over the past ten years, it’s an exciting time to start.”

Currently, Argue works at Rand Automotive in Victoria where he hopes that he’ll soon be working on exclusively EVs. After that, he wants to focus on educating a new generation of technicians with the skills he’s learned.

“Ultimately I’d like to be a teacher, and take the information I’m learning and pass that on,” says Argue. “I want to be the kind of person Pat Jones has been in my life, to get kids excited about electric vehicles and getting out into the trades.”

Learn more about the Electric Vehicle Technology and Service program here.

Watch Argue explain why he's focusing on EVs and what's in the future can look like for Red Seal Automotive Service Technicians like himself: