b'FACES OF THE TRADESTARTING OVER IN ROOFING How a passion for roofing led to a new career I nBritishColumbia,therearetwoBY NOAH COTE came across the website for Yellowknife and ways to become a certified roofer it looked like a great place to raise kids. So, the apprenticeship pathway and thewe booked a flight to Yellowknife.challenge pathway. OnFriday,May23,2014,thecouple And while the pathways to becomingarrived. As they got off the plane, Burshan certifiedmaybelinear,thepathwayremembersbeinghitwithasortof todecidingtobecomecertifiedforculture shock.34-year-old Aya Burshan was decidedly non-linear. There was snow on the ground, laughs Burshan grew up in the Netherlands,Burshan.Butwemanagedtosurvive wheresheearnedherBachelorsdegree,through the weekend.metherhusbandandcompletedherThe next week, the couple hit a local job Masters in Law. After some world travelingfairwhereBurshanspottedanadvertise-and soul searching, she and her husbandment calling for roofers in the city. As much Dingeman van Bochove settled outside ofas she wanted to begin her new career, she Amsterdam in 2012. was spending an immense amount of energy Onemorningwhileridingthemetrobattling pregnancy sickness. But her husband to her office, she looked out at a wood- went ahead and accepted a roofing position.working arts shop. She watched as people took classes to build ornate furniture and fixtures.I remember at some point I thought, I wish I did something creative and hands-on instead, says Burshan. My generation was pushed really hard into academics and I remember wishing that [hands-on work] was presented as an option to me. Burshan got off at her usual stop and went to work, stowing her dream awaybut the fire was lit.After attending an immigration expo offering all sorts of career change opportunities, Burshan and her husband decided to apply at a Canadian booth to enter a lottery that offered a work-holiday program. The winner could redeem a visa to work in Canada at any time.While they waited to hear the results of the lottery, Burshan was offered a position in a tax law office in Dubai, which she took. After traveling halfway around the world and working a new job for a matter of months, she discovered that not only did the couple win the Canadian work visa lottery, but Burshan was pregnant.Thats when I knew I couldnt keep living in Dubai, says Burshan. I had been living in big city after big city my whole life and at that point we couldnt do it anymore, we needed to do something different. Surrey | Burnaby | Parksville | Victoria | Duncan | Courtenay | AbbotsfordShe and her husband decided to activate their work permits and make the move to Canada, but they admittedly didnt knowcgrs.caexactly where to go. We wanted to slow everything down, says Burshan. We kept looking more and more north until we www.rcabc.org l19'