David Drury
Welding Program Chair and Instructor
David is an Interprovincial Red Seal Journeyman Welder with a BC Level A Welder Certification. He has held BCP-100, PWP 10 and PWP 7 certifications through the BC Safety Authority. He has also held ‘B’ Pressure Certification in Alberta, as well as CWB All Position Certification in SMAW and FCAW. He has held pressure tickets in Ontario, Quebec, Alberta and BC. He is a CWB Certified Welding Supervisor (W47.1 and W59). David became interested in metalwork in high school but took a detour through a career in Healthcare Facilities Management before retraining as a Welder. He worked as a high-pressure journeyman welder for over ten years, has been at VIU as an Instructional Assistant and Welding Instructor since 2006. He still finds the various processes of cutting and joining steels amazing.
Phone: 250.740.6139
Cell: 1.236.628.2135
Email: David.Drury@viu.ca
Michael Hallam
Welding Instructor
Michael trained for welding at VIU (then Malaspina College) from 1987-1991 and has worked at various welding and fabrication shops, as well as most of the pulp mills on the island. He is an Interprovincial Red Seal Journeyman Welder with a BC Level A Welder Certification, and holds certification in PWP 7 and 10 and PP-101. Michael has been a welding instructor at VIU since 2007 and finds teaching an interesting and rewarding job – he enjoys sharing his knowledge with students.
Phone: Phone: 250.740.6139
Email: Michael.Hallam@viu.ca
Ken Parkes
Welding Instructor
Ken is a Red Seal Welder and Red Seal Ironworker. He started in the trade in 1995 at the age of 18. He attended BCIT and NAIT for his ironwork apprenticeship and SAIT for his welding apprenticeship. He has worked on projects across Western Canada including damns, pulp mills, bridges, stadiums and oil refineries. He currently holds a CWB certification in both stick and wire processes and is also a certified CWB supervisor. When not working, he enjoys kayaking, hiking, camping, hockey, dirt biking and downhill biking.
Phone: 250.740.6139
Email: Ken.Parkes@viu.ca
Brad Harrison
Instructor
Brad is a Red Seal Journeyman Welder with his Level A Welder Certification. He has also been in the fabrication business since 1996. While training at NIC Campbell River, he was given the opportunity to instruct as well and has never looked back. Brad’s diverse background includes Heavy Equipment Fabrication, Mining, Logging, Fisheries, Petrol plant work, Pressure Vessel, processing plants specializing in alloy’s and food grade materials along with Race Car Fabrication. Brad was responsible for designing and instructing the NIC Intro to Welding courses for the general public from Campbell River to Port Hardy until 2010. Brad has also owned a small off road/race fabrication shop since 1996 and enjoys the satisfaction of design, fabrication and racing of his own creations over the years. He discovered early on that teaching was his passion and has enjoyed passing on the knowledge to the next generation of Welder/Fabricators at NIC and VIU since 2007. Brad would like to acknowledge all of his mentors and co-workers who have been with him on his amazing journey and he looks forward to many more years to come. Brad has been with VIU at Cowichan and Nanaimo campuses since 2015.
Phone: 250.740.6139
Email: Brad.Harrison@viu.ca
Julien Savard
Instructor
Julien is an Interprovincial Red Seal Journeyman Welder with an ABSA "B" pressure certification and has been working in the welding trade since 2003. He has an extensive and diverse welding background. Some of his past experiences have come from hard surfacing welding for down hole drilling; metal core welding for pump jack fabrication; GMAW/SNAW welding in the pipe/tank/vessel, skid fabrications for overseas projects; and some robotic welding.
From industry, Julien became a welding instructor at the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology (N.A.I.T) where he worked for several years and enjoyed collaborating with fellow instructors. During his time at N.A.I.T. he obtained his B Pressure Welding Certification, Master's in Blacksmithing and his Master Instructor Level 2 certifications. He has taught everything from first-year apprentices to adults in continuing education including preparing welders for their B Pressure test.
In 2018, he left Alberta with his family to pursue and obtain his Bachelors of Education here at VIU and has since achieved his Masters in Educational Leadership. He continues to develop his skills and is thrilled to be allowed the opportunity to collaborate with his fellow instructors here on Vancouver Island.
Phone: 250.740.6139
Email: Julien.Savard@viu.ca
Quinn Ramsay
Senior Technical Training Assistant
Quinn is an interprovincial Red Seal Journeyman with a BC Weld “A” ticket and was qualified as a Technical Safety BC Class “A” Pressure Welder. He started out as a Welder’s helper and gold miner before studying welding at Camosun College in 1998. He gained industry experience while working oil and gas infrastructure construction and maintenance in four Provinces before joining the VIU welding program in 2013. He serves on the Trades and Applied Technology workplace safety committee. Committed to lifelong learning, he graduated from the Provincial Instructors Diploma program at VCC in 2018. Quinn feels the modern Canadian welding industry is more diversified than ever with student opportunities in ship building, manufacturing and construction.
Phone: 250.740.6118, Local 6118
Email: Quinn.Ramsay@viu.ca