Buffalo Narrows Probing Trades Training for Kids
Friday, March 19, 2004 at 14:16
The Buffalo Narrows Economic Development Corporation is tossing around the idea of giving students the opportunity to learn job skills from trained professionals before they even leave school.
CEO Doug Ebby says he has already talked to Northern Affairs minister Buckley Belanger about the idea, as well as other economic development groups.
Ebby hopes to curb high unemployment figures and low graduation rates as much as possible.
Ebby says heavy equipment operators, welders and millwrights are just a few of the tradespeople that mining and gas companies will need in the years to come.
He hopes that by introducing kids as young as Grade 6 to workers in the industry — and then giving them the chance to apprentice under them — they may see a chance for themselves to earn a high-paying job.
Ebby says his next order of business is to talk to the school division about the idea and, hopefully, the minister of Education.