Kirsten Larsen
Northern News Services

NNSL (Apr 12/99) - Getting jobs in the mining industry isn't easy without the skills, but thanks to two new on-the-job training programs offered in Rae-Edzo, residents are able to pick up skills while working in their community.

One of the programs trains people to work as cooks in mining camps and the other trains people to operate heavy equipment used in the mining industry.

The students and staff at Chief Jimmy Bruneau school are being well fed by the nine students taking the mining camp cooking/catering program that started March 9. The cooks feed over 300 people a day and that number may increase when road-crew workers, including community residents in-training, begin working on the Highway 3 project.

The cooking students are being taught skills that will be transferable to restaurants and the catering business. Besides taking food safety courses and other necessary certification courses, the students work most of the day in the industrial kitchen in the school's cafeteria.

"They are getting on- the-job training so they know what it's like," said Gloria Moran, program instructor. "They are on their feet all day and they go home tired."

The 21 residents training for the road-crew positions are in their second week of the program and will begin the practical part of their training within the next month, when construction begins.

A student training to be a heavy-equipment operator on the road said the skills he will pick up training and working with Pelly Construction will open up other jobs for him.

"It will benefit us for the next job and Pelly might keep some on," said the student, who did not wish to give his name. "Most of us want to go to the mine after the project is finished. We can do driving and whatever we have been trained to do."

The participants are being trained for various positions such as rock truck drivers, drillers, blasters and surveyor helpers, plus they will have the necessary safety training and certification needed for the job.

Training for the programs has been contracted out by Aurora College, which is funding the programs, but the idea for the programs came from the Mining Training Committee. The committee -- made up of various mining companies and aboriginal groups -- identified a need to have Northerners trained for mining-related jobs.