Fort Smith (Oct 02/06) - For about a decade, Doug Phillips has taken students with no knowledge of welding and given them the basics to begin a career in the trade.

Phillips instructs a pre-employment welding course at Aurora College in Fort Smith.

Doug Phillips is the pre-employment welding instructor at Aurora College's Thebacha Campus in Fort Smith - Paul Bickford/NNSL photo

"I bring them into the trade," he said of his students. "They come in here knowing absolutely nothing. They're green."

Phillips noted most students also enter the course thinking it's not going to be too difficult.

"They think it's easy," he said, explaining they get that idea from seeing workers on various job sites.

Over the years, he has taught men and women ranging in age from 18 to 60 from all over the NWT and Nunavut.

"I don't know how many I have gone through," he noted, although he estimates the number is over 200.

Phillips instructs about 10 students a year, spread out over two four-month semesters, at Thebacha Campus. He has also taught many in a mobile welding school, which travels to numerous communities.

Afterwards, the students have to go south for three more years of training leading to journeyman tickets.

Phillips, 50, shows his students the basics of the trade, first gas welding and then arc welding. Gas welding uses oxygen and acetylene, while arc welding is done with electricity. "I teach them the safety aspects and the theory," he explained, noting his number one job is to keep students safe.

Phillips also shows the students how to cut, including plasma cutting using electricity and compressed air.

"There's a lot of fabrication that goes on here," he said, pointing to a steel stand and a trailer used to carry Santa Claus around Fort Smith each Christmas.

By the time students complete the course, Phillips said, "I expect them to be able to go to any job and start working safely and with confidence."

Phillips helped create the mobile welding school.

The unit has been taken to students in communities as widespread as Iqaluit, Inuvik and Fort Resolution for one to two months at a time.

"It's mainly for them to get a feel for welding to see if they can and want to do it," Phillips said, adding it can train eight students at a time.

Originally from Aklavik, Phillips grew up in Fort Smith.

In 1976, he studied pre-employment welding in Fort Smith at the Adult Vocational Training Centre, the forerunner of Aurora College.

Since then, he has worked all over the NWT and Alberta, before returning to Fort Smith when the college launched its pre-employment welding course about 10 years ago.