Ensuring successful trades training with essential skills.
Representing the accumulative work of experts, the essential skills curriculum for Aboriginal apprenticeship candidates was approved by Human Resources and Skills Development Canada and the Alberta provincial government in late 2006.
By helping candidates, who normally might have difficulty passing a trades entrance exam, the potential pool of Aboriginal apprentices can be expanded during at time when trades people are in high demand.
Administered and promoted by the council, this $1.5 million project runs from March 2007 to November 2008. Once the Alberta curriculum is proven, many other regions are looking forward to adapting this program to their apprenticeship system.
Through a memorandum of understanding and agreement, Red Crow Community College in Lethbridge will pilot the first program, followed by NorQuest College in Wetaskiwin and Blue Quills First Nations College in St. Paul.
Created in 2001, this project works to increase Aboriginal employment in the environment sector, through career awareness programs, training and employment resources. The project’s goals are to:
The Job Horizons program, now in stage two, placed 346 individuals during the duration of phase one with an anticipated target of 400 new placements in phase two. Currently, 232 placements have been completed which is 58 per cent of the anticipated target. As of January 31, 2009, the project has placed a total of 578 Aboriginal workers into jobs in Alberta’s oil sands projects as well as the mining industry in Saskatchewan. The Job Horizons program continues to inform, register and recruit northerners into the job pool for employment opportunities in these sectors. An expansion of the program is planned to become the training facility of choice as well as the employer’s first choice for recruiting and hiring through a strategy of offering more Aboriginal workers that are registered, experienced and job ready.
To continue this, Job Horizons will:
