Cambridge Bay’s trades access program sparks ambitions

Trades access students Henry Eyegetok, Louie Makittuq and Megan Mala sit with their instructor Jacques Gagnon in their Nunavut Arctic College classroom in Cambridge Bay. (PHOTO BY JANE GEORGE)

CAMBRIDGE BAY — Louie Makittuq has a new reason to hop out of bed in the morning — not only does he have to get his 12-year-old son up for school, but he also has to get himself ready to head over Nunavut Arctic College, where he’s one of 10 students enrolled in its trades access program.

The trades access program, which prepares its students to pass the trades entrance exam and qualify as trades apprentices, will open new doors for him personally and out in the workplace, said Makittuq.

For Makittuq, now 44, it’s also a chance “to be a better role model for his son,” who has been more interested in school since his father went back to school.

After school, they now ask each other the question, “how was school,” he said.

“I want a better job so I can provide more stuff for him and teach him the importance of education,” said Makittuq, who is the oldest member of the class.

The trades access program will hopefully prepare him for a good job in housing maintenance, he said.

Makittuq isn’t not the only one with ambition.

Henry Eyegetok, 22, who admits to being uninterested in his studies when he left school four years ago, is now keen to finish the trades access program.

He’s got his eye on becoming an oil burner mechanic — that’s a job he knows well, he said, because, when he was younger, he used assist an oil-burner mechanic in Cambridge Bay.

Being an oil-burner mechanic is a job that remains in demand here, where everyone depends on having furnaces in good working order.

Four of the trade access program’s 10 participants are women.

After stints as a cashier, janitor, kitchen assistant, and child care worker, Stephanie Bolt, 25, who used to watch her father fix snowmobiles and other small engines, is eager to embrace a non-traditional job for women and apprentice as a mechanic.

And Megan Mala, 25, a recent graduate of Cambridge Bay’s life management course, got hooked on the idea of becoming a house maintainer during her practicum with the local housing authority.

Praising her co-workers there for their support and patience, Mala said they got her into the work immediately, teaching her, for example, how to repair broken windows.

Trades access instructor Jacques Gagnon, a former shop teacher at Kiilinik High School, says he was pleasantly surprised to see how serious his students are this year — the third year that he’s been teaching the program.

During the course, Gagnon will spend a lot of time on upgrading the students’ math, science and English skills.

Although a Grade 10 or equivalency is required to enter the program, all participants — who must be over 18 — are also likely to earn their Grade-12 equivalency before they finish the year.

And that’s in addition to learning about the various trades and, during a class excerise, how to build a scale model of a house — to code.

By the end of the 32-week course, Gagnon expects his students will be able to pass the tough trades entrance examination, which then allows them to apprentice in the trade of their choice and work towards becoming a full-fledged tradesperson someday.

Last year, nine of 13 passed the exam, he said.

After the trades access program, participants are encouraged go on to Rankin Inlet’s Nunavut trades training centre, or into another college program.

To get them interested in leaving Cambridge Bay for further study at Rankin Inlet’s trades centre, Gagnon is planning a visit there later in the program.

As apprentices, they’ll be expected to work with someone locally, but go to Rankin Inlet for more study modules.

Gagnon said he personally recruited the trades access students this year, with the advice of local business leaders who recommended names.

Although students receive about $450 a week to attend the course, Gagnon said they’re not in the class to earn money.

They’ve got their focus on their future, he said, when they’ll have a choice of well-paying jobs available in Cambridge Bay or wherever they choose to work.