Local 1 Saskatchewan Launches Pre-Apprenticeship
Training Course
January 2005
Local 1 Saskatchewan President Clarence Medernach knew
that in order to expand the masonry industry in the province,
which will create work opportunities for Local 1 members,
efforts to recruit apprentices would need to be stepped
up. Those efforts have included seeking out the skills
of the First Nations/Aboriginal people of Saskatchewan,
who comprise about 50 percent of the population. Medernach’s
groundbreaking initiatives in this area have taken over
two years to develop, “but the work and determination
have definitely been worth it,” he says.
In partnership with the First Nations Employment Centre
and with the support of provincial masonry contractors,
Local 1 took a chapter from IMI’s successful approach
to training and designed a “Pre-Apprenticeship Training
Course” that will be delivered through the Saskatchewan
Institute of Applied Science and Technology (SIAST) – Wascana
Campus. The 14-week course consists of safety training,
cultural awareness training, the first term apprentice
curriculum, and roughly five weeks of hands-on craft training.
The course will begin in early 2005.
“This project helps address the province’s
critical lack of masonry apprentices and journeypersons,” says
Medernach, and will also help to increase the representation
of the First Nations/Aboriginal sector in the building
trades.
Medernach is also pleased that the project is in line
with the recommendations of the Millennium Morning Project
report with respect to reaching out to under or non-represented
pools of workers, and hopes that the training will serve
as a template for pre-trades training in the masonry industry
across Canada.
Local 1 signatory contractors have committed to taking
the graduates on as apprentices once work commences in
the spring.
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