Rankin Inlet high school students to try their hands at trades

About 100 Rankin Inlet high school students will have the chance to try woodworking, cooking and sewing later this month in an inaugural weeklong skilled trades training program.

Brandon Villeneuve, executive director of Skills Canada Nunavut, says Rankin Inlet Skills Week will give students a chance to try different trades. (Photo by Arty Sarkisian)

“I think it’s such an effective way to reach youth and get them the experience they might not get otherwise and expose them to careers they might not have otherwise considered,” said Brandon Villeneuve, executive director of Skills Canada Nunavut.

He’s helping organize the school’s Skills Week in partnership with Agnico Eagle Mines Ltd.

A similar program has existed in Baker Lake for more than a decade, with about 70 high schoolers taking part.

“They’ve been running it for a long time and we just hear nothing but positive feedback about this program,” Villeneuve said of the Baker Lake events.

The new program in Rankin Inlet also has support from EPLS Group of Companies, Nunavut Arctic College, and Nunavut Housing Corp.

It will run from Feb. 23 to 27 and include full-day practical courses in carpentry, electrical works, sewing, culinary, hairstyling and esthetics.

Students choose which program they want to pursue. At the end of the week, they will get credits that will count toward their high school graduation.

“It’s been tiring, but rewarding,” said Villeneuve.

“Everything we’ve worked on for the last eight months is really coming to fruition.”

Skills Canada Nunavut is a non-profit arm of the national organization that works to promote trades and technology careers to youth. As part of its work, Skills Canada Nunavut runs esthetics and photography clubs in Nunavut schools.

“There’s a stigma around trades sometimes,” said Villeneuve, who has been at the helm of the Nunavut organization for just over a year.

“But all of them [careers in trades] are valuable and have their place in society.”

At a minimum, his hope is that Rankin Inlet students will have fun during Skills Week with the change in routine. And if a couple of them also consider one of those trades as a future career, that’s a win.

“The goal is to hopefully do this yearly in Rankin,” Villeneuve said. “And in a perfect world, we would do this in as many Nunavut communities as we can.”