Essential Skills - National Adult Literacy Database

Essential Skills and the Northern Oil and Gas Workforce Final Report and Resource Guide
• Training and skills development in the north is bringing people from diverse sectors
together. People who don’t usually talk to each other now have a common cause.
This must continue – all stakeholders must meet and find solutions together.
• The GNWT must make vocational training a priority. Aboriginal groups want a sense
of belonging to something sustainable. In order to accomplish this, people will have
to think creatively – go outside the box for answers.
• There must be trust relationships to talk about needs; and actions will only be
relevant if needs have been explored.
• A trades skills school is needed – the money is there. But the will must be there too.
• People living in the north must learn to see themselves as having a competitive
advantage. They already know how to live and survive in the north: southern
workers won’t have this advantage when pipeline construction begins and workers
are needed.
• Analysis has been done on what kinds of jobs the pipeline will create – now, it must
be determined how capacity can be developed. Capacity is the answer. Work will
breed more work whether the pipeline comes now or later.
What next?
• Information must be widely disseminated in terms of what skills industry wants
workers to have.
• There is a database being compiled of all workers available for pipeline-related work.
• The Work Readiness Program will be implemented.
• All examples used in ABE should be from real life and real workplaces, and should be
culturally aware.
• Introduce the Linkage Model.
• Involve and engage the school system.
• Personalize essential skills for the oil and gas industry (more focus on the learner,
take the lead from the trainers who understand that essential skills are all about
people)
• Core values must be identified and shared by all involved in developing capacity in
the north – workers must be safe, workers must be given training, workers must
have the opportunity to succeed.
• There should be a central organization to warehouse information and essential skills
resources (a clearinghouse). This hub would be a nerve centre for all involved in
building the essential, employability and technical skills of the north.
• The conference networking list is important for establishing a group of supporters to
move forward.
• There must be a cross-industrial approach in the north – all stakeholders must be at
the table (industry, education, 2 levels of government).
• Aboriginal Futures is an excellent example of collective and shared responsibility.
• Creativity will be important as the north attempts to overcome barriers and create a
skilled workforce.
• There should be a follow-up workshop, one that focuses on the north as a
community of people, one that highlights success stories.
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