Employment program funding for Northern Alberta

The High Prairie Regional Training and Development Centre, led by Northern Lakes College in partnership with Tolko Industries and the Northern Alberta Development Council, has received $2.8 million in funding from the Rural Alberta Development Fund. The centre focuses on providing trainees with hands-on experience in an industrial and practical working environment to develop a skilled labour pool for the growing resource-based industry in northern Alberta. This project will engage high school students enrolled in Career and Technology Studies in dual-credit high school/college programming for electrician, welder, millwright, process operator, and power engineering. There will also be opportunities for pre-employment training for those no longer in high school. The re-purposed Tolko mill facility will provide lab space for trainees to combine theory with practice in an industrial setting. “This project will create training opportunities for high school students, First Nations and Métis people and others, to help build a skilled regional workforce to strengthen and diversify the local economy,” said Verlyn Olson, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, in a news release.