First students graduate from job readiness program
- Fraser Needham | May 03, 2015
Ten Saskatchewan Aboriginal graduates will soon embark on careers as pipefitters.
The group is the first graduates of a new job readiness program created by CIMS Limited Partnership, the Saskatchewan Piping Industry Joint Training Board, Gabriel Dumont Institute, the Saskatoon Tribal Council and Saskatchewan Building Trades.
As part of the program, they spent about eight weeks in the classroom and are guaranteed jobs in the industry immediately afterwards.
The graduates will then need to spend about three to four years on the job upgrading their skills and education before they become fully certified.
Todd Verbeke is the general manager at CIMS.
He says the pipefitting trade offers a variety of well paying jobs in the oil and gas, pulp and paper and coal, uranium and potash mining industries.
Once fully certified, unionized pipefitters can earn as much as $45 per hour.
However, there continues to be a skill shortage in the industry, and Verbeke says the partners figured rather than depend on temporary foreign workers to fill the gap, why not tap into the wealth of Aboriginal talent within the province.
“We’ve all heard about foreign worker programs,” he says. “Yet, we have a labour pool right here in our province that’s willing, able and needs an opportunity for these positions. And they’re not lower level positions. They’re career opportunities.”
The Saskatoon Tribal Council has taken an active role in the job readiness program by recruiting and screening a number of candidates.
STC Chief Felix Thomas says he has had a number of conversations with both industry and the Saskatchewan Federation of Labour as to why Aboriginal people have been unable to break into well paying skilled trades jobs.
He says the program enables Indigenous people a chance to get a foot in the door in the unionized building trades.
“One of the big barriers is that a lot of these kids don’t have a way into the different jobs as a lot of our people aren’t as established in some of the union halls,” he says. “So, they can’t mentor, they can’t provide opportunities for their kids, or their cousins or their nieces and nephews.”
Thomas adds one of the best things about the job readiness program is it offers immediate employment after a short period of training.
“It gives them hope in the future but it also gives them hope to complete. A lot of people need that future door to be opened for them and this just gives them that motivation.”
Eighteen-year-old Gage Scott of Kinistin Saulteaux Nation is one of the graduates of the job readiness program.
He says after high school he tried his hand at carpentry but believes he is better suited for pipefitting and is willing to see where the trade takes him.
Scott thinks a lot of young Aboriginal people are likely unaware of the opportunities a trade like pipefitting can offer and just need a bit of help getting a foot in the door - such as this program offers.
“They don’t really have the proper guidance to take them there,” he says. “Me, I had my parents and they guided me to go where I wanted but they let me choose what I wanted and I really thank them for that. Finding this pipefitting really puts my mind at ease.”
Verbeke says CIMS and the other partners hope to continue offering the job readiness program once a year.
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