THiS YEAR, the Video Production 12 Career Preparation class at North Vancouver School District’s Leo Marshall Curriculum Centre was approached to “produce a video production - depicting a work experience program that is extremely successful — Youth West. - By Matt Boyd ° Contributing Writer The video production crew was . made up of a group of students: “ Mare Wilson, Shawna Hall, Craig Hashimoto and myself. We are also involved in a work experi- _ ence program in making this © video for Youth West, a program developed by Cypress Bowl Recreations in partnership with local high schools. Youth West gives students the opportunity to get hands-on work “experience prior to graduation and entering the workforce. Some 50 high school students have received over 100 hours of training in ski - area operations. Students learn such skills as how to write a resuine, dressing * appropriately for a specific work- place, as well as the skills Involved in customer relations. “These skilis are reinforced through classroom work in a Tourism 11 class. Students perform 100 hours of work experience at Cypress Bow] on weekends, since the greatest’ ‘demand for extra help is at this : time. The students rotate through. - “such departments as Alpine Maintenance and Food Services as “well'as the Rental Shop, Doing these particular jobs on these busy weekends is beneficial to the stu- ‘dent as they are exposed to more people. Here they have the oppor- ” tunity to ‘develop their customer relations skills. Cypress Bow] hires over, 600 people for theix winter season. Of those hired, few ever return the following yéar. One’ purpose of the Youth West program is to cre- ate a core group of students who - have the required skills necessary : for some of the more complex and * ‘demanding jobs. : “