Yellowknife (Jun 14/06) - A one week training session in Dettah is helping to create seasonal and potentially long-term jobs for several members of the Yellowknives Dene First Nation.

Seven Dettah and Ndilo residents took part in five-day course, which was hosted in Dettah last week.

The session, called an introduction to construction surveying, was organized by the Mine Training Society and the NWT Department of Transportation.

Total funding for the program was more than $146,000. In addition to covering the cost of equipment and instructor fees, the money will also pay the wages of the students who go on to work road construction this summer.

Students who took part in the 37.5 hour course learned about surveying and road construction, said instructor Justin Hazenberg, who is also a project engineer with Aboriginal Engineering.

"We try to get outside," said Hazenberg who taught 50 per cent of the course in the field and 50 per cent in a class room.

The only female student in the class, Tina Crookedhand, was glad to get the training.

"Hopefully, I can get a job working on the highways," she said.

Crookedhand said she would like to combine a variety of technical skills and be as diversified as possible.

"I'm always willing to give it a try and challenge myself," she said.

She said that in the future, more aboriginal women should be involved in training courses.

"Women can do it," she said.

The course took place after the Department of Transportation and the Mine Training Society realized that construction workers would be needed during road work on the 11.3 km Dettah road, said Mike Borden, North Slave highway operations manager with the Department of Transportation.

"Survey and reconstruction work will happen and we are intent on using local people," said Borden.

In April, Shirley Tsetta, the Yellowknives Dene representative for the Mine Training Society put in a proposal for the course for Yellowknives Dene.

"It was a really good opportunity to get interested people in the field," she said.

The proposal was approved by the Department of Transportation and the Mine Training Society.

The Mine Training Society receives almost $40 million in funding from industry, the territorial and federal governments, as well as First Nations groups.

It also has partnerships with the Yellowknives Dene and Lutsel K'e Dene, the Tlicho government and the North Slave Metis Alliance.