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KANGIQTUGAAPIK/CLYDE RIVER - Silas Natanine recently passed the national trades entrance exam, and he looks forward to the opportunity to apply his skills towards a successful career after nearly two years of delay.

"At 45, working half of my life I have always made 15 bucks an hour and I finally want to start making a little bit of money," Natanine said.

Silas Natanine says studying and asking lots of questions is the key to success in getting a career in the trades. - photo courtesy of Matt Bouchard

"You have to keep concentrating on what you want. Lots of study. I know for sure I had to do lots of studying to get into this trade again."

In 1995 he started an apprenticeship as an oil-burner mechanic under a temporary worker from Nova Scotia. But when Natanine's instructor's contract finished and he returned home, Natanine was left without an instructor and had to switch his apprenticeship to another field.

He chose housing maintenance, which had plentiful instructors in Clyde River and did an apprenticeship working for the Nunavut Housing Corporation. However, he quit over personality conflicts, something he regrets to this day.

"I didn't know that the apprenticeship could be also closed if I didn't record it every six months," Natanine said.

Natanine spent a few years doing odd jobs, mostly as a driver and fixer for the Aarruja Store. He also lived in Iqaluit for a year and worked for Narwhal Plumbing and Heating there. He returned to Clyde River and became a plumber-helper with Nunaliit Mechanical.

Then one day Natanine got word that a trades instructor was visiting Clyde River to administer the trades entrance exam.

"I told myself, what the hell, I'll go do it," Natanine recalled.

It was a disaster. Natanine scored around 53 per cent, well below the 70 per cent needed to pass. In the 10 years since he was an apprentice, Natanine's math, science and English literacy skills were rusty. But the failure served as a wake-up call for him. He said he realized the commitment he had to make if he wanted to improve his professional opportunities, so in the fall of 2008 he enrolled in the pre-trades course at Nunavut Arctic College's Community Learning Centre in Clyde River and studied like never before.

"I tried to concentrate on science when we were on course," he said. "The old OBM (oil-burner mechanic) course has a lot of science."

In writing the exam, some of the English technical words were tough for Natanine. He said he asked a lot of questions during the pre-trades course to find out what words such as "density" meant.

"I know if I didn't have a good instructor and some good support like from my family I probably would have failed," he said. "But I have support from the family, from the teacher and I think that by asking lots of questions, that's how I passed."

Natanine's perseverance paid off. He passed the exam, unlike many others who wrote the test with him. Ironically, many of those who failed had been helping Natanine with the math and science material of the course, which were still his weakest subjects. Natanine said he believes some of the intelligent young people who took the test didn't pass because they didn't have the necessary English skills, despite their abilities in math and science.

Now Natanine is considering whether to move to Iqaluit for an oil burner mechanic apprenticeship or stay in Clyde River and apprentice in housing maintenance. Natanine would prefer to be an oil burner mechanic, but there's no journeyman in Clyde River to train him.