Workers learn with on-site computers
Dave Sullivan
Northern News Services
Yellowknife (May 30/01) - Diavik has decided to do something about the Grade 9 average education level of construction workers by encouraging apprenticeships and offering courses at the mine site.
The company and its contractors, which employ 800 workers building Canada's second diamond mine, are thinking long-term.
Diavik wants to re-hire as many as they can when construction winds down and up to 450 miners are hired.
"We would rather not bring people on site as labourers, but as skilled people," says Diavik's construction training manager, Glenn Zelinski. "Most important is the confidence you're building in people."
The company points to what could be the biggest trades training initiative ever in the territory -- sending 45 apprentices to Edmonton to help build housing modules that will be put together at the mine to shelter 260 people.
They will be working for Ekati Services, a joint venture between PTI Group and the Yellowknives Dene First Nation.
Other construction contractors or subcontractors are putting people to work on community projects to upgrade their skill levels.
Prospective concrete company employees helped build a sidewalk outside an elders complex in Rae, while others wanting to learn construction are rebuilding Yellowknife's Side Door youth drop-in centre.
Everyone else who wants to upgrade skills has access to a dozen new Dell computers at the mine, set up in a trailer and hooked up to the Internet.
Workers can learn how to read and write, or in one case, take engineering courses on-line from the University of Alberta.
Diavik acknowledges that after an 11-hour shift, many people don't have time or energy to pursue studies.
Work time isn't allowed to be used as an incentive, but that may change once the mine starts producing diamonds and employees will work directly for the company.
Zelinski said it's unreasonable to ask contractors doing the construction work to contribute their workers' time.
"The contractor is committed to getting a job done," he said.
Laptops are envisioned in the future, computers that can be signed out by those wanting to study on-line in the comfort of their private rooms.
Zelinski said Diavik always knew it would have a tough time finding skilled tradespeople because of high demand for them in southern areas like Alberta.
Training those already here fulfils commitments the company made to hire Northerners.
Diavik spokesperson Tom Hoefer put it simply: "As long as we can help raise (education) levels in the North, everyone benefits."
