BAKER LAKE - A group of 14 Kivalliq youth have a renewed focus on finishing their education to earn employment within the mining industry, following a 20-day program in Baker Lake that wrapped up this past week.

The Alliguujattiavait (Kivalliq Gems) youth employment and training program was held at the Agnico Eagle Mines (AEM) Meadowbank mine site. All 14 high school students, representing six Kivalliq hamlets, completed the program, which involved interacting, mentoring and job shadowing with AEM staff members.

A completion ceremony was held at Baker's Jonah Amitnaaq Secondary School to mark the occasion.

Program co-ordinator Dave Bradley said the course received rave reviews from the participants, as well as program partners AEM, the Department of Economic Development and Transportation, Kivalliq Inuit Association, Kivalliq Partners in Development and Calm Air.

Focus on mining

Bradley said the main focus of the program was to help youth develop an educational path aimed towards skill development in mining and mineral exploration.

He said the idea behind it is to encourage the students to stay in school.

"We want them to decide to stay in school and become trained or educated to a higher level," said Bradley.

"Then they can participate in this mining economy at a higher level than baseline jobs.

"It was an employment and training program, so the students did a combination of work and training that included being assigned various work projects around the mine, job-shadowing specialists in different departments and basic safety-induction training.

"They also took part in numerous sessions geared towards informing them about the different aspects of the mining and mineral-exploration processes."

Lots of interest

Bradley said although there wasn't much time for recruitment once the program was approved, it still attracted 35 applicants from across the region for 14 available spots.

He said a lot of great work was done by the region's community liaison officers (CLO) in support of the program.

"The CLOs were key to this program being a success.

"The community radio stations also played an important role in getting the word out to the students about the program.

"Between those two approaches, we had the applications rolling in."

Bradley said from the feedback he's received, there was a general excitement among staff members sparked by having the youth on-site.

He said the students added a new flavour to life at the mine.

"The Inuit youth demonstrated some Arctic Games skills, and we witnessed a neat interaction between them and the mine staff.

"It was generally a well-received program that seems to be working quite well in catching younger people while they're in the educational window and, hopefully, encouraging them to pursue post-secondary studies to become skilled in a trade or specific field."

Youth take part

Ben Angoshadluk, 18, of Rankin Inlet was one of the youth who took part in the project.

The Grade 12 student said he thoroughly enjoyed the program.

"It was a great program and I found it to be very educational," said Angoshadluk.

"Taking part really has me thinking seriously about looking for a job in the mining industry.

"There's sure a lot of things to do there."

Angoshadluk said he was impressed by how well-organized the mine site has to be, and by how everyone has to work as a team.

He said the supervisors really stressed the importance of teamwork during their job shadowing.

"If one group doesn't do what it's supposed to do, it's going to screw another group totally over.

"It's really important for workers to take their jobs and responsibilities very seriously at the mine."

The importance of education

Angoshadluk said the instructors talked a lot about getting a higher education to obtain better jobs in the industry.

He said that made a definite impression on the 14 Kivalliq youth.

"Everyone in our group took the message pretty seriously about furthering our education to get work in the industry.

"We all liked the job opportunities we saw there.

"There was one person in our group who had, pretty much, dropped out of school, but the program gave him second thoughts about going back to get a trade.

"They definitely got the message across to everyone."