 | Home page |  | Text size |  | E-mail this page |
Universal safety training Mine Training Society learns value of collaboration during first decade
Daron Letts
Northern News Services
Published Wednesday, August 21, 2013
SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
The Mine Training Society, which turned 10 years old earlier this month, is promoting a collaborative approach to worker safety training as it expands its programming this fall.
Kyle Bayha of Deline, seen here during a site tour at Ekati Diamond Mine, graduated in 2011 from the 12-week underground mining course at Aurora College's Yellowknife campus. - photo courtesy of Nigel Fearon |
Next Monday, society general manager Hilary Jones is scheduled to meet with industry partners to present an Aurora College-developed safety training curriculum.
"One of the things that the mines wanted to do was create common training so they wouldn't have to retrain a person if they left Diavik and went over to De Beers (for instance)," Jones said.
"We've got a draft training program for them with the outcomes that hopefully they'll all agree to and then we'll start rolling out the training."
The curriculum focuses on fall protection, confined spaces safety, and lock out and tag out procedures, which cover how to shut down mine equipment.
Once accepted by the mining industry, the course will certify workers for employment at various mines, eliminating the need for redundant retraining. Society clients will begin taking the course this fall and new mine employees will take the course as part of safety boot camp, Jones said.
"The only way industry is going to survive (is) if we all work collaboratively together. In order to be collaborative you have to build a relationship of trust," Jones said.
"In a partnership, everybody brings something to the table and everybody wins, and that's what our board has embraced."
The Mine Training Society learned the benefits of collaboration early in its history.
The society formed in 2004 out of the 2003 Ministerial Ad Hoc Committee created to advise the minister of Education, Culture and Employment as the Ekati and Diavik Diamond Mine projects first got established, the society was started with core funding from the Government of Canada's Aboriginal Skills and Employment Partnership through Human Resources and Skills Development Canada.
"At one point (the society) was like the bank of mine training. We just handed out money. We didn't get involved with the students. But, the success rate wasn't really great, so we decided strategically to look at it upside-down," Jones said, referring to the society's early learning curve. "Rather than a mine saying, 'I need to do this training,' we brought everybody together and said, 'OK, how many underground miners do you need?' And then we prioritized the training that needed to get done to meet the needs of industry. The top priorities, though, were the ones that would not only be useful to industry, but for communities, as well (such as heavy equipment operating and administration)."
The society has grown to anticipate industry needs, developing major programs such as introduction to underground mining, underground mining, heavy equipment operation, mineral processing and, recently, geoscience field assistant.
A geoscience field assistant pilot course is planned for January. Aurora College is in the late stages of completing the curriculum.
When the college placed advertisements calling for curriculum developers for the geoscience field assistant program, the society received several calls from prospective students wishing to apply.
"People are now associating getting a job and talking to the Mine Training Society," Jones said. "It is an excellent opportunity for young folks to develop a long-term career. Neils Kristensen (Diavik president and chief operating officer) and Bob Gannicott (Dominion Diamond Corporation chairman and CEO) both started as underground miners and now they're the presidents of their companies. You know, they did the work and they got some professional development, but just because you started off there doesn't mean you'll live there. You can, with the right drive, move along. A lot of our earlier graduates are moving up through the ranks."
The NWT is set for a burst of mining jobs by 2017, Jones said, with nearly 5,000 mining positions and another 9,000 related service jobs, such as fuel handling, logistics, expediting and catering.
The society helped develop a four-person cook-training program in partnership with Bouwa Whee catering in Lutsel K'e earlier this year.
To meet the approaching increase in demand for skilled labour, the society is preparing more than programs for 2013-15, representing an estimated 260 students. The society received $5.8 million in federal funding for its Mining the Future initiative, which seeks to remove barriers to employment for aboriginal residents. Society partners such as the GNWT, Kitikmeot Inuit Association, corporate partners Diavik, De Beers, Dominion, Avalon, and Canadian Zinc, and aboriginal governments also provided funding for the new programming.
"(The mines) are going to be able to draw on a lot of skilled individuals that have been trained in the area of heavy equipment operating, geoscience field assistant, and underground mining," Jones said.
When diamond mines end their production life in 10 to 15 years, more reclamation jobs are anticipated.
"Our dream is to be able to provide training for everything from community engagement to reclamation, which would be wonderful," Jones said.
Job coach Jessica Enzoe Riddle said the society, which has eight employees in offices in Yellowknife and Fort Simpson, will be holding a 10th anniversary celebration in September.
"It takes 10 years to be an overnight success," Jones said. "You have to build that relationship and develop a level of trust."
Goals for 2013-15
- Provide 32 or more programs
- Assess 400 people for training suitability
- Assist 250 people in removing barriers for employment (training, record suspension)
- Train 260 people
- Assist 220 people to obtain employment
- Northerners served: 2,000
- Northerners trained: 1,200
- Number of trainees currently employed in the industry: 852
- Number of training programs delivered since 2004: 150
- Average age of male students: 18 to late 50s
- 25 per cent of enrolled are aboriginal women from ages 18 to 54, which is above the industry average of 14 per cent.
Source: Mine Training Society - as of June 31
| 
