Plans unveiled for petroleum sector training centre

Page 2

Aboriginal people from across western Canada interested in a career in the oil and gas industry will soon be able to get the training they need at the new Thunderchild Petroleum Institute of Technology.

The institute, a partnership between Thunderchild First Nation and the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology (SAIT) will provide technical training programs specifically geared to the petroleum industry, offered in a culturally supportive setting. The institute is slated to open this coming spring.

The school will offer practical training with accredited certification to help meet the demand for skilled petroleum sector workers. Estimates put the number of new jobs in the oil and gas sector that will be created in the area over the next five years at as high as 22,000.

The new petroleum institute initiative is breathing life into what has been called "a large white elephant," the former All Nations Institute of Technology (ANIT), built at great expense on Thunderchild more than 20 years ago and which stopped operating soon after it opened due to cuts in government funding.

Winston Weekusk, the current Thunderchild chief, was one of the major players in getting ANIT off the ground, helping to secure federal funding for the institute through Employment and Immigration Canada. Unfortunately, that funding dried up two years later, when the department changed its policy and began providing training funding directly to corporations rather than post-secondary institues, band consultant Marv Hendrickson explained.

" The ANIT, after being completely built and fully equipped, was left isolated without the commitment of the federal government on an ongoing basis and virtually never used," said Hendrickson.

"Chief Weekusk has pursued it, whipped this horse for 25 years. His intention is to get it back up and running in a practical sense, to serve the individual, the needs of the First Nation and be realistic in terms of the petroleum industry where the jobs are. The chief has always had a focus on full employment and economic self-sufficiency. When you start identifying a couple of hundred jobs on reserve, you are going a long way towards personal and family self sufficiency," said Hendrickson.

SAIT officials will mentor and train Thunderchild managers and use programs and courses accredited by SAIT and the Saskatchewan Indian Institute of Technologies (SIIT) and which meet industry standards and conform with operating agreements with the Saskatchewan and Alberta apprentice boards.

"We want to offer a well-rounded education, culturally based, in new facilities on a reserve setting. Following through with the petroleum institute initiative shows that in the long run we are going to have successful students," said Marvin Jimmy, Thunderchild's director of education.

"We see the whole infrastructure, kindergarten to 12, followed by the Thunderchild Forum which is our first and second year arts and science programs in partnership with the University of Saskatchewan, proving that we are able to give our students more programming and support on the First Nation. The idea is not to keep our students from having off-reserve experiences," Jimmy explained, but to increase the number of students from the First Nation who successfully complete their studies.

Over the past three years, he said, 80 per cent of students attending the Thunderchild Forum have completed their studies, compard to a 40 per cent success rate for students attending the College of Arts and Sciences at the U of S.

"I know that what we are doing is important and substantial in helping create successful individuals," said Jimmy.

The band council has allocated $5.3 million from the First Nation's recent specific land claim settlement to an Enhancement for Education trust fund designed to promote education, training and employment for band members.

The First Nation, which is also an oil and gas producer with significant petrolem reserves, has also entered into partnerships with 11 oil and gas companies. Those companies have also invested in the new petroleum institute with start-up grants, employment development, and by providing industry input into course content.