Northern tour hopes to generate interest in mining careers
- Fraser Needham | May 04, 2015
The Saskatchewan Mining Association is working closely with teachers and students to give them a snap shot of what a career in the industry might have to offer.
In the third week of April, SMA visited schools in Fond du Lac, Black Lake, Wollaston Lake and Stony Rapids as part of the “Flying in Career Fair.”
The career fair is put on by Keewatin Career Development Corporation and other participants included Cameco, Areva, Northern Resource Trucking, Points Athabasca, Athabasca Catering, Northlands College and the Saskatchewan Indian Institute of Technology.
In the SMA portion of the career fair, students were given a quick introduction to mineral resource exploration including how to use maps to search and drill for mineral deposits.
They also had the opportunity to ask questions about what sort of career opportunities there are in the mining sector, the salaries these careers offer, and the education required to pursue various post-secondary programs in related fields.
Kate Grapes Yeo is the education outreach coordinator for SMA.
“The whole idea behind the hands on activities was to give them a bit of a taste of what it would be like working in that career,” she says.
Although the SMA activity focused on mineral exploration, Grapes Yeo says the mining industry offers a wide variety of different career choices.
“One of the things that I tell the students is that there’s over 120 different careers that mining companies hire. Anywhere from engineers, geologists, geophysicists…We look for office staff, welders, electricians. So it’s people of all different educational backgrounds.”
In mining camps, other career opportunities include catering, health care and cleaning related jobs, she adds.
“We don’t just work underground. We’re not just miners – there’s nurses who work with mining companies, everybody in the front office also works for mining companies. So it’s not just looking for people to work actually on mine sites.”
The SMA also works specifically with educators as part of the Geoventure Program.
The idea behind the program is to help teachers incorporate the most up to date information on mining into their curriculums.
Beginning in mid-August, a group of 24 educators will be flown into northern Saskatchewan for a site tour of uranium mining and milling operations.
Other site tours include a conventional surface and underground potash mine and a tour of an open pit coal mine.
The tour also makes stops at the Potash Interpretive Centre and T-Rex Discovery Centre before wrapping up on August 21.
“It gives the teachers a really good view of the resources that we have in Saskatchewan as well as mining processes, the safety, the environment, the processing of these resources,” Grapes Yeo says.
SMA also provides educators with lesson plans and kits on the mining industry that can later be used in the classroom.
Earlier this year, SMA participated in the “The Future Is Yours” career fair in Saskatoon which specifically targets Aboriginal youth.
Over 800 students attended.
Last month, the organization also attended the Saskatoon Tribal Council’s Science and Culture Camp working with 80 Grade Four students over three days.
In May, SMA will be visiting schools in the File Hills/Qu’Appelle area.
Saskatchewan Mining Week is May 24-30.
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