Mining Job Training Still In Demand

Mining Job Training Still In Demand

Thursday, October 08, 2009 at 13:24

The manager of a company that specializes in training people for the mining industry says that despite the recession, student enrolment continues to be strong.

Bob Huckaluck of NUNA Training Technologies says enrolment numbers have stayed steady throughout the economic crisis and he expects them to start climbing soon.

Each year, NUNA trains a few hundred students to be haul truck operators, drillers, forklift drivers and other heavy equipment operators.

Huckaluck says enrolment typically goes down whenever a recession starts, but that hasn’t happened during this particular slowdown.

He says that over the next two to five years, the mining industry will face “a critical shortage of skilled people” in their sector.

“It’s very important that we’re on board now, and we’re getting people trained up, so they can meet the demand when it comes, and it will come,” Huckaluck says.

Huckaluck is manning one of the booths at the Saskatchewan Mining Association’s trade show, going on today in Prince Albert.