NUNAVUT - The Nunavut Fisheries Training Consortium (NFTC) has received an additional $6 million in funding that will extend its life to 2012.

Students registered with the Nunavut Fisheries Training Consortium practise operating flares during a training exercise in Iqaluit last February. Approximately 345 students have registered with the consortium since it was created in 2005. - photo courtesy of Nunavut Fisheries Training Consortium

The consortium, created by the Baffin Fisheries Coalition and Human Resources and Skills Development Canada (HRSDC), provides skills training for Nunavummiut interested in careers in the offshore turbot and shrimp fishery.

Since 2005, the consortium has helped approximately 345 Nunavut residents gain both basic safety training and skills for careers as marine diesel mechanics, deckhands, engineers and many other positions, said project officer Mike Walsh.

The consortium was born of a need for more Nunavummiut participation in the industry.

"In the past, it's been hard to crew the boats," said Walsh. "Each community gets a quota that's fished. Problem is, in order to go off fishing, you need some basic certifications and there were very few people in Nunavut who had those certifications."

After its first year, the consortium began providing advanced training for more specific careers. For instance, last fall, six students took a course preparing them for eventual work as marine diesel mechanics. The course was divided into two classroom-based portions. The first took place in Iqaluit last fall; the second sent the students to the Marine Institute at Memorial University in St. John's, N.L. While only three completed the course in June, those that did performed well, said Walsh.

"They went down and worked on full-sized diesel marine engines," he said. "The standards they were held to were the same standards that anybody else was held to in the program."

One of those students was 25-year-old Patrick Kuniliusee of Qikiqtarjuaq.

"Our electrical course was kind of hard for me because I had never done any electrical work, but I got through it," said Kuniliusee, who preferred the more hands-on work. "We took an engine apart and put it back together."

Being away from his girlfriend in Qikiqtarjuaq was the hardest part of going south, he added.

Kuniliusee is currently waiting to land a three-month work placement in the engine room of a Canadian Coast Guard vessel.

After his work placement, he'll write a Transport Canada exam and if he passes, he said, "that means I'm a certified diesel mechanic."

After two years' experience in the offshore and another exam, Kuniliusee hopes to become a fourth-class engineer, which means he'd be under less supervision.

In the long term, "My plan is probably to work for one of the Inuit owned cargo or fishing boats," he said, adding he'd like to be based out of Qikiqtarjuaq.

Kuniliusee said marine diesel mechanics earn between $52,000 and $60,000 for half a year's work.

"I wanted to start a career, didn't want to have to move job to job living paycheque to paycheque," he said.

While the consortium would obviously like to see its successful students go on to work in the Nunavut fishery, it's not a mandatory requirement, said Walsh.

"As far as we're concerned, as long as they get a worthwhile job, we'll consider that a success," said Walsh.

The consortium has traditionally focused on the offshore industry, but the new funding will allow it to broaden its scope, said Walsh.

"We have also expanded to include inshore and processing training," he said.