Mining Fundamentals Cohort #2

Overview

Hudbay Minerals reached out to Northern Manitoba Sector Council to facilitate a 9-week train to employment. The program was to target students from the Norway House Cree Nation and Kiciwapa Cree Nation to get more people into the growing  workforce. This program was delivered in partnership with Northern Manitoba Sector Council, Workplace Education Manitoba, and Hudbay Minerals in Snow Lake, Manitoba. We started planning early March and had a short time frame. We wanted to complete program before summer kicked off. Held multiple meetings over poster resulting in a slow start to get poster launched. CEDF designed and created poster for the team, which was very helpful. April 8^th the poster was launched on NMSC website and Facebook, we also sent copies to Employment and training services in Norway House to advertise. We tried to market program to Kiciwapa Cree Nation but didn’t have much luck. The application period was available for two weeks this short time we had just under 30 applications that came from mostly our target area, We held an information session to meet potential students and showcase the program in Norway House Cree Nation on April 10^th at the UCN office. Following this we also had another information session in Flin Flon at the Victoria inn inviting the Kiciwapa Cree nation community leaders along with some individuals from community to try and spark interest in the mining field. We started the screening process sifting through the applications to confirm students are from right demographic area before we passed on to Hudbay. The screening process was completed on Hudbay’s end. 17 students were contacted for interviews in the hope of accepting 10. Interviews took place in Norway House Cree Nation at UCN building the other 7 interviews were completed virtually by Hudbay along with Terry from The NMSC side. interviews were planned by NMSC and ran by Hudbay along with NMSC mentor.  The selected candidates where then offered positions in the 9-week paid training program, 3 weeks took place in The Pas at the Wescanna Inn.  We wanted to ensure there was no barriers for students each student  was provided hotel room and meals for duration of course along with competitive wages. We also liked the idea of taking the students out of community to get the true feel for the job as Hudbay is a camp position job demanding you to be away from home and family for 7 days at a time.

Students

10 students were accepted into the program. 9 students completed the program, and all 9 students secured full-time employment with Hudbay minerals.

• 10 were Indigenous Males
• 8 from Norway House Cree Nation
• 2 Moose Lake

Succes Stories

The completion rate of 90% is very positive. 9/10 of the students secured full-time jobs with high salaries and full benefits. The hardest part is getting started, these 9 students have a career now for the rest of their lives. Learners reported a boost in self- confidence, being better equipped to pursue their goals, higher motivation to keep working towards their goals. In addition, they developed relationships with employers, learned all about mining and worked in different areas and positions on the mine site. Student that resigned from the program will be kept in mind for further courses.