Gerry Petrash is an Industrial Engineer at Irving Shipbuilding. Prior to joining Irving Shipbuilding in 2019, he spent 19 years living and working in Sapporo, Japan as an English teacher with his wife and two children. Though he enjoyed his life and made many friends during his years in Sapporo, he knew he wanted more - in 2013, Gerry and his family decided it was time for him to pursue his lifelong interest in science and engineering.
“Going back to school to study engineering at age 45 was a
gamble that could have gone south in many ways but turned out to be the best decision
I could have made for my family’s growth.”
While still living in Sapporo and working as a full-time teacher, Gerry began
studying online to pass the prerequisite courses he needed to enroll in the Engineering Diploma Program
at Dalhousie Agricultural Campus. Fast forward to 2016, and his new chapter began. Gerry and his family
bought a one-way ticket back to Nova Scotia and his journey to becoming an
Industrial Engineer took off. Gerry dedicated himself to his education and completed
his Engineering Diploma in 2019 with three co-op work terms, his third being
with Irving Shipbuilding’s Marine Fabricators in Dartmouth.
“I believe it’s important for
anyone pursuing a distant dream with a family in tow to ensure that everyone gets
to define their own path so that they too can cross finish lines of their own
and go on to bigger challenges.”
After graduation, Gerry was offered a position on the Continuous Improvement
team at Irving Shipbuilding where his skill set
expanded through various projects, and his professional development continued
to grow as he worked towards his Professional Engineering designation. Gerry
has also integrated his environmental passion into his career by sitting on the
War on Waste committee and establishing their recycling program, a project that
recently reached and surpassed its target of $1M in savings.
“Irving Shipbuilding is very
supportive of their employees who seek to better themselves. In my case, it was
through generous support with professional membership fees, and time to prepare
many experience documents, along with time to take the National Professional
Proficiency Exam.”
In Gerry’s current position as
Industrial Engineer, he primarily focuses on the development and
tracking of performance and quality metrics for visual management, as well as
creating various activities to support production for the Arctic and Offshore
Patrol Ship program. Gerry also plans for the future Canadian Surface Combatant
work scope.
“At Irving Shipbuilding, I feel
like I have a front-row seat at Canada’s
National Shipbuilding Strategy.”
Now having recently celebrated the
successful achievement of his Professional Engineering designation, and his
third year with the company, Gerry is proud of how far he has come and is excited
for what opportunities will come his way.
“Continuous Improvement applies not only to the business
but to the people as well - for those willing to put in the extra work, you
have great support from the company.”