Terry Kruger
Northern News Services
Yellowknife (Feb 05/01) - Welding is dirty work. The metal is rusty, the work is dusty and the welding process often gives off a lot of smoke. You get burned.
The clothes you wear are big and bulky: thick leather gloves and welder's jacket, face shield and the trademark round cap that allows the shield to go on and off a lot easier.
| Background
|
That's okay, because he loves his work.
"I like to do construction," he explained from Back Bay Welding, the family-owned shop where he works.
"I don't really care for wood. I can't stand the smell of wood."
Working with metal came "a lot easier."
Popma spent his early years in Yellowknife, then moved away until his late teens. He came back during the summers, starting when he was 17 or 18 to work at the welding shop.
He returned to live here permanently about five years ago. His mother and father and one sister live in Yellowknife, too. Two other sisters live in Alberta.
Twenty-eight and single, Popma enjoys life in Yellowknife. He likes to hike and his job allows him to get away for skiing in the winter.
He also spends his spare time rebuilding a '72 Chev truck. He bought it when he was 16 and "drove the crap out of it."
Popma started rebuilding it "here and there" and how it just needs bodywork.
He likes to travel, too, and work as a welder has taken him around the North, helping construct buildings in Resolute Bay, Rankin Inlet, Chesterfield Inlet and Repulse Bay.
Learning a trade
Popma was one of the rare young people who pretty much knew what he wanted to do for a career.
"I never really bothered looking around much," he admitted.
If he hadn't become a welder, his future would likely have been working under the hood of a car, as a mechanic.
When the people from Apprenticeship NWT came to the shop one day, he took up their invitation to go to trade school and get the training he needed for welding certification.
He studied at the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology in Edmonton in 1995. After a year in trades school, he took some time off, and then decided to return two years ago. He only finished his training in December.
His journeyperson's ticket hasn't arrived. It must be in the mail, he joked.
Apprenticeship was a good way for him to learn his trade.
He spent two months each year at NAIT, doing classroom work. There was basic math. Learning the carbon contents of different kinds of steel, and their melting points.
The "welding part" was easy, said Popma.
He is good at it, too and won an NWT award last year for the highest mark among second year apprentices. He also credits Apprenticeship NWT staff with helping him along the way.
A big part of apprenticeship is the on-the-job training.
Nine months of the year he wasn't in school, he worked as a welder. First-year apprentices earn half the wage of a journeyperson in that trade and the salary increases each year.
"It's all on-the-job training," said Popma. "You have to have so many practical hours."
Doors have opened
He's now one of the 88 per cent of all NWT apprentices who earn their journeyperson ticket.
"It has opened doors for me," said Popma.
It qualifies him for the higher wages a journeyperson welder earns and lets him into most work sites.
If he decides to do something else, the ticket is "something to fall back on."
He's also interested in gaining new skills.
"I really want to get my ironworker's ticket."
It's also proved to be rewarding, knowing he's helping to build a territory.
