Furthering the task
Trades week huge hit with students in Baker Lake
Darrell Greer
Northern News Services
Wednesday, May 17, 2017
BAKER LAKE
The second annual Trades Awareness, Skills and Knowledge (TASK) Week was held in Baker Lake from May 8-12.
Chance Mannik, left, tries to cool things down a bit as cameraman Laurent Desilets, right, does a little repairing of his own during Task Week at Jonah Amitnaaq Secondary School in Baker Lake. - photo courtesy of Karen Yip |
TASK Week is an educational opportunity Agnico Eagle Mines (AEM) shares with the community of Baker Lake for senior high students at Jonah Amitnaaq Secondary School (JASS).
AEM community liaison co-ordinator Karen Yip said TASK Week 2017 was bigger and better than last year's inaugural kick-off.
Yip said organisers now had more people to choose from to be involved in the project, so it was evolving quite nicely.
She said Devon Killulark just received his red seal in mechanics and instructed the mechanics course for the high school students, as well as bringing an apprentice along to help him instruct the electrical course.
"We also had role models from the community working with some instructors, which we see as a very valuable component to the overall program," Yip said.
"This year, not only did we have great trainers from Meadowbank, like Gilles Loiseau and Patricio Iglesias, but we were extremely proud to be able to highlight many locally trained, made-in-Nunavut high achievers.
"We also had our own Inuit instructors and apprentices participating and providing a powerful, positive impact on the program and the community.
"We found that by sharing their goals, achievements, and experiences, these role models provide a very real relationship between trades, training and the students."
Trade instruction during TASK Week included mechanics, welding, electrical, culinary arts, hairdressing, environmental studies and work readiness.
Activities ranged from the culinary arts program preparing a feast for the entire school at the awards ceremony to the environmental studies group doing mock wildlife monitoring along the All Weather Access Road.
Trainers included Randy Schwandt of Baker Lake, electrical apprentice Amelia Netser, Andrew Forsey and AEM's recently certified red seal heavy-duty technician Devon Killulark.
Special guest stylist Alain Larivee from Montreal even brought along a video team - producer Simon Gravel and cameraman Laurent Desilets.
Yip said AEM hopes to hire hundreds of people in the Kivalliq region and would like young people to know that this means they have more options and more choices.
She said Kivalliq youth can work in retail or for their hamlet, but they can also become an engineer or welder, chef, heavy-duty mechanic or geologist and still live in their home communities.
"We hope to, maybe one day in the future, move this initiative to other Kivalliq communities, but we're focused on Baker lake for right now," Yip said.
"My message to students used to be stay in school, but what I tell them now is to work hard and finish school because their future is now!"
