Whether you're beginning your career in the skilled trades or thinking about beginning a career in the skilled trades, success in your field is probably on your mind. Here are some skills you can sharpen to ensure your success in your skilled trade jobs in Ontario.

Customer Service Skills

It's true you often work on your own as a gas fitter, but you'll have to interact with customers as you go in and out of homes or businesses to work on gas furnaces or other gas appliances. Having excellent customer service skills is important for those interactions.

If you have poor customer service skills it will reflect poorly on not just you, but also on the company if you are employed by one. If you work on enhancing your customer service skills, you'll make customers happy, and ensure that you have a better reputation as a gas fitter.

Be adaptable

Learning how to be adaptable is an incredibly important skill in skilled trades jobs. The job differs day to day, which means you should be adaptable to what is required that day. It also changes as the seasons do. In the winter you'll likely be servicing many gas furnaces, while in the summer the focus may be services gas barbecues or air conditioning units.

Becoming someone who is flexible and can adapt to whatever situation they are in quickly will help you in your career. If you are more flexible, it will be easier for you to switch from job to job, so that you won't be slowed down at the beginning of a job with a new customer.

Interpersonal skills

Customer service skills are an important piece of the puzzle, but it's also beneficial to enhance your skills when dealing with other people in the same trade. Like any career, having connections and knowing the right people is a big help once you enter the workforce. Attending a skilled trades school locally helps you get connected to a lot of the people you'll be working with, and your instructors will be able to help you network as well.

At the Niagara and Halton Skilled Trades Academy, we help students completing their gas fitter license in Ontario ensure they leave us ready to take on the workforce successfully. For more information on whether this career could be right for you, download our career guide.