Recently launched Mobile Training Classroom to expand opportunities for remote Indigenous communities

Employment, Workforce Development and Labour Minister Patty Hajdu announced $182,000 in federal funding for LiUNA Local 607’s recently launched Mobile Training Classroom: Removing Barriers to Train project on Aug. 6 in Thunder Bay.

By Rick Garrick

THUNDER BAY — Fort William First Nation’s Noah Ogima and Michael Banning are looking forward to working in the trades once they complete the cement finisher program at LiUNA Local 607 in Thunder Bay. The two cement finisher apprentices were in attendance during Employment, Workforce Development and Labour Minister Patty Hajdu’s Aug. 6 announcement of $182,000 in federal funding for LiUNA Local 607’s recently launched Mobile Training Classroom: Removing Barriers to Train project.

The project will provide mobile training for up to 300 apprentices, including about 15 per cent women and 40 per cent Indigenous people.

“What got me interested in this [cement finishing program] was the opportunity to get a job,” Ogima says. “I’m in the third week out of four weeks — everything is going great.”

Ogima says he and the other 11 cement finisher apprentices have been working on completing a variety of certificates that will be valuable for working in all trades.

“I think by the end of the four-week course we are going to have 28 tickets under our belt,” Ogima says.

Ogima says his goal is to own his own business in the future.

“I’m very driven,” Ogima says. “I feel like I have the attitude.”

Banning says he joined the program after Shane Fugure, Indigenous relations at LiUNA and a Pays Plat citizen, told him about the opportunity, noting he was looking at obtaining a Red Seal trade.

“This [program] was very good,” Banning says. “If you had a hard time understanding something, [the instructors] would sit with you and teach you until you learn how to do it.”

Banning says it was “good” experience working with the other apprentices.

“We all do everything differently, and to see all the processes being done makes a lot of these jobs easier because you know more than one way of doing something,” Banning says.

Fugure says the cement finisher apprentices are from all across northwestern Ontario.

“We are a multicultural organization,” Fugure says. “We believe in equality, removing barriers and just getting a better way of life to all of our members as well as the general public.”

Funding for the Mobile Training Classroom: Removing Barriers to Train project was provided through the Innovation in Apprenticeship Stream of the Union Training and Innovation Program.

“Having a mobile unit means this organization is going to be able to take the training where people are at,” Minister Hajdu says. “They’re going to be able to go to those communities and say, ‘Have you ever thought about a job in construction? Have you ever thought about what it would be like to be a cement worker? Have you ever thought about what it would be like to enter this trade?’”

LiUNA plans to work with Anishinabek Employment and Training Services, Pays Plat First Nation, and the Thunder Bay Construction Association and build new partnerships with five community organizations to assist with recruitment of apprentices for their training programs.

“Through this initiative, LiUNA will conduct mobile training to help up to 300 apprentices complete their technical training,” Minister Hajdu says. “The mobile training will make training more accessible to Indigenous people and women across the region.”

The federal government invests $25 million annually in support of the Union Training and Innovation Program.

“The Mobile Training Classroom is an innovative approach to reach a solution in expanding training opportunities for remote Indigenous communities and ensure everyone has the opportunity to access skills training, leading to building a career and better future,” says Joseph Mancinelli, LiUNA’s vice president and regional manager for Central and Eastern Canada.