Canvas Student Voices: Dylan, BCITO

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Building a future: How Dylan balances work, family, and learning

Dylan Henning’s days start early. By 6:30 a.m., he’s already on-site, preparing for a full day of hands-on work as an apprentice carpenter through BCITO. His evenings revolve around his one-and-a-half-year-old son, Carter—bathing him, feeding him, and spending time together before bedtime. Once the house quiets down, Dylan shifts to his studies, working towards a qualification that will shape his future.

For vocational learners like Dylan, finding time for study alongside work and family commitments can be a challenge. Canvas helps make progress possible by giving him the flexibility to learn whenever and wherever he needs to.

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Video Transcript
I'm really hoping to get qualified with my apprenticeship to provide for my family. Family is really important to me. They're always around. They're the the biggest part of my life. I couldn't imagine my life without, my family. I think they're my pretty much my purpose for what I wanna be, for alive and succeed in life.

Canvas gives me the flexibility that I need to spend time with my family as well as finishing my apprenticeship. My name's Dylan Henning. I'm originally from South Africa. I live in New Zealand, and, I'm an apprentice carpenter. I start work at six thirty in the morning and then finish at four thirty, so that's a full day of work.

And then after work, I get home, spend a bit of time with the family. I try to bathe my son and and get some time in with him, give him some dinner, and put him to bed. I kind of sort of just fell into carpentry, but the longer that I did it, the more I actually started to enjoy it and really find a passion for it. Life would be boring without learning every day if that's what I love about it. I'll always be learning doing carpentry.

So Dylan, he he's he's he wants it the most. He took my advice and went straight into the night classes straight away, and he's soaking up everything I'm telling him like a sponge. So I use Canvas at home and on-site. I use it on-site, with uploading all my evidence on-site as well as reading through modules. As we're working. It's quite helpful to read through and understand things while doing it on-site, and I use it at home, quite a lot too as I I'll upload some stuff in the evenings too, and I I'll do lots of studies at night through the Canvas app. Canvas really, really, really is beneficial for apprentices with the flexibility that it gives them to do their apprenticeship and and have all that information on hand, and that's all through the Canvas.
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Bringing the classroom to the worksite

Dylan gains skills through real-world experience, learning directly on-site each day. He takes photos of his work, documenting his progress and techniques, and uploads them to Canvas for review. His training advisor, David, checks his submissions and provides feedback in real time.

“If I upload something and I’m missing details, he’ll comment straight away and say, ‘This is what you need, and this is what we’ll focus on next time I see you,’” Dylan said.

This immediate feedback helps him refine his skills as he goes. Everything he needs to track his progress is available digitally, allowing him to stay on top of his learning, no matter where he is.

Studying around life’s biggest priorities

Dylan’s schedule is packed. After work, he spends time with his family and then heads to the gym to unwind before studying. Instead of following a rigid schedule, he studies whenever he has time—after Carter has gone to sleep, on weekends, or even during a quiet moment at work.

“Canvas gives me the flexibility I need to spend time with my family while still finishing my apprenticeship,” he explained. 

Through Canvas, he also discovered night classes through BCITO's Learner-Focused Training (LFT) program. The extra training helps reinforce the theory behind his hands-on work, making everything click faster.

“They’re not mandatory, but they help a lot,” Dylan said. “They make the theory side of my apprenticeship easier to manage.”

Seeing progress, staying focused

Dylan uses Canvas to track his progress, which helps him stay motivated and plan his next steps.

“I’m already at 23 percent of my apprenticeship, ahead of my original goal for the year,” he said. “It’s easy to feel like you’re just working day-to-day, but being able to track my progress shows me how far I’ve come and what I still need to do.”

Having a clear view of his achievements helps him set new goals and continue building his skills. 

Dylan is working towards a future where he can provide more stability for his family. His long-term goal is to run his own business, and every skill he develops brings him closer to that vision.

“Learning every day is what keeps me moving forward,” Dylan said. “The more I learn, the more opportunities I have.”

With Canvas helping him stay organised and on track, Dylan can focus on learning, improving, and preparing for the future he’s building—one step at a time.