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Wednesday February 17 2016 9 HR BLOCK SUPPORTS AURORA COLLEGE WEEKFeb. 15-19 May you BRIGHTEN the North through your academic achievements HR BLOCK 163B McDougal Rd. Fort Smith NT 867 872-2489 appreciates our students and staff during AURORA COLLEGE WEEK Monday - Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday 11 00 am - 900 pm 11 00 am - 900 pm Closed Hours of Operation 872-3332 Lutsel Ke Dene First Nation Congratulations Aurora College Never stop LEARNING. Never stop EXPLORING. Never stop GROWING. By CRAIG GILBERT Mining in the NWT may be under pressure but the Mine Training Society MTS that pro- vides its skilled workers is still hopping. GeneralmanagerHilaryJonestoldtheJour- nal the organization is busy helping miners including those laid off as De Beers Canadas Snap Lake mine halted production find work elsewhere and acquire new skills. We knew Snap Lake was going to be clos- ing that was known in the industry because of theirwaterproblemshesaid.Werestillwork- ing with them to develop more surface miners because Gaucho Kue will be open pit. Were workingwithsomeoftheindividualswhowere laid off to obtain employment elsewhere. A lot of the skills we work with are transferrable to other industries including road construction especially with the talk of the permanent road up to Whati and to Norman Wells. The MTS which is government-funded and worksinpartnershipwithindustryandAurora Collegeisalsobusyhelpingcompaniesreplace retiring baby boomers who are deciding in droves they never again will go underground. Canadasmininglabourforceisolderthanthat ofothersectors.Themedianageofaminerinthe NWTwas32yearsin2013eightyearsyounger than the national average. However almost 15 per cent of them were 55 years or older in 2011. Thats where the bulk of the new jobs are comingfromshesaid.Westillneedemployee replacement and retirement is a big chunk. Releasedin2014theGNWTreportNorthwest Territories Mining Hiring Requirements and AvailableTalentForecastsuseddataincluding NWT-specific commodity prices mining GDP andfactorslikemajormineconstructionandwhat advanceddevelopmentisunderwayintheterri- tory to project the number of workers that will beneededoverthenextdecadeinthreescenar- iosbaselinecontractionaryandexpansionary. Baseline assumes steady growth and would require 2170 new workers contractionary as- sumeslower-than-expectedgrowthandwould require just 340 workers while the expansion- aryscenarioenvisions3100newworkersinan unexpectedly robust NWT mining sector. In each scenario nearly half of those openings are created by retirements. The report drilled down on 66 different oc- cupations within the mining sector including mine support and service and found most of thejobswouldbeinthetradesandproduction making up 745 of the 2170 openings projected in the baseline scenario. Thehighestrequirementsareprojectedtobe inoccupationsincludingundergroundmining millwrights and industrial mechanics geolo- gists geochemists and geophysicists. WehadourboardmeetingonFridaywithour miningpartnerspresentandtheyconfirmed theprioritiesfortrainingforthenextfiveyears will be surface and underground mining min- eralprocessingsafetydiamonddrillingandjob readiness Jones said. The proportion of highly-trained younger workers in the mines is growing. Weve noticed a change in our client base Jonessaid.Theyreyoungerandbetter-educated andchoosingminingasacareerversustaking what job is available. Some of the folks weve trainedareactuallydrivingtheequipmentfrom up above theyre not in the equipment at all. Sinceits2003inceptiontheMTShasworked with more than 3300 people provided sup- ports for 2400 and facilitated employment for 1100 people which represents five per cent of the NWTs entire workforce. AuroraCollegeprovidesthetrainingonMTS behalf. Duane MacDonald acting chair of the School of Trades at Thebacha campus in Fort Smith said the school benefits from a strong relationshipwithMTSthatgoesbeyondtheso- ciety simply sending them students. Iwanttostressthefactwearepartnersand workverycloselywitheachotherhesaid.With- outthecollegeitwouldbeverydifficultforthem to get what they need but MTS has done a lot to benefit the college as well. StudentssentthroughMTSaretheretostudy a particular subject but they obtain peripheral skillsthathelpinlifewhiletheytrainatAurora including computer skills first aid and resume writing for example. Thompson said it makes for a more well-rounded graduate. Im really generalizing but in some of them its about learning to work with people others arestillsortoftechnicallikecomputerskillshe said.Thatisntnecessarilyminingitsnothelp- ing you drive that truck but when youre done drivingthetruckandhavetodothereportthe computer skills make you a stronger employee and make you more valuable. Baby boom retirements keep Mine Training Society busy EDUCATION MINING PhotobyBillBraden Mine Training Society stakeholders including Aurora College and members of the industry gathered for a recognition event in Yellowknife last fall. Despite the slowdown mines are expected to need thousands of workers in the next five years.