Businesses, like sports teams, need a strong and reliable supply of new talent.
Leading sports teams invest heavily in scouting and signing promising young players, most of whom distinguish themselves in the amateur ranks. Junior leagues supply most of talent for professional hockey while high school and college programs feed the insatiable appetite of pro football and baseball teams.
Skilled workers
Oil sands developers have turned to a similar model to cultivate skilled workers who are badly needed as baby boomer-generation talent heads for the exits. Not surprisingly, labour availability is a critical factor when it comes to how and when oil sands projects proceed. In some cases, we already have skilled labour shortages.
One solution oil sands developers are pursuing is “growing” new skilled workers in the communities where they already operate. Suncor is investing in training, starting with apprenticeship programs for potential future workers when they leave high school.
Apprenticeship, trade-related programs
Suncor, for example, participates in Alberta’s Registered Apprenticeship Program. Designed for high school students who know they want to pursue a career in the trades, the program offers participants the opportunity to earn school credit for their apprenticeships and divide their time between approved worksites (like Suncor’s), and their high-school studies.
Partnerships with educational institutions that have trade-related programs, like Keyano College in Fort McMurray, is also helping produce new talent. Since 1998, and as part of a long-term partnership with Keyano College, Suncor has invested more than $3.7 million, primarily in support of the college’s mining and process operations programs.
In 2013, we agreed through the Suncor Energy Foundation to support a new Skills Canada Alberta initiative called Skills in the Classroom. This in-school program introduces elementary, junior and senior high students to careers in the skilled trades.
Women, Aboriginal people
Apprenticeship programs are just one way we are meeting our skills needs. Programs which encourage women to join the process and construction industries and initiatives to train Aboriginal people in skilled trades are other programs we support.
Like the Oakland Athletics, Los Angeles Kings or the Calgary Stampeders, oil sands developers are identifying and developing young talent and stand to reap future success.
