Professional Development Opportunities Northern Opportunities Peace Energy Experience The Peace region of North East BC has an abundance of ongoing and proposed energy projects, encompassing wind, solar, oil and gas and hydroelectric. Because much of the industry in the area is primarily resource based, the educational system is working to provide students with local learning opportunities that allow them to live, study, and stay in the North. Northern Opportunities is a collective partnership of school districts, industry and Northern Lights College that strives to introduce students to career opportunities through hands-on learning, work experience, apprenticeship, college training and university transfer courses. These courses and programs focus on introducing our students to local careers available to them. However, there is limited exposure for students considering employment in the energy sector if they reside outside of our area. Students from all over the province can benefit from visiting and learning about educational and career opportunities available in the North. For this reason, students from throughout BC are invited to come to the Peace region to participate in the Northern Opportunities Peace Energy Experience. Not only will these students experience what the jobs in the energy sector look like in North East BC, they will also have the opportunity to obtain course credits and a work force training ticket in H2S Alive. The program runs from May 9 through13, 2016, and consists of five days of learning about education and careers opportunities in the energy sector. Students in grade 11 will experience the energy sector through tours of local facilities in the Peace region, and connect with industry and training mentors. For further information contact: bcampbell@prn.bc.ca OR Brad_Booker@sd59.bc.ca Oil Sands and Careers in Alberta In mid-October, one of our Surrey Career Centre Assistants, Mari Warrior, had a unique opportunity to visit the oil sands in Fort McMurray in northern Alberta. She writes about her experience below: “I went to Fort McMurray, knowing very little about the oil sands industry and did not know what to expect. However when I arrived at the Fort McMurray Airport, the organizers, Inside Education, were there to welcome us so I immediately felt at ease.
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Over the next four days we packed in many tours, one of which was an oil sands mine (pictured below). It is hard to imagine the size of these areas without actually being there. The truck on the far right can hold 400 tons of oil sands! Compare that with the regular sized trucks on the left. 400 ton truck at a mine
We also visited an ‘in situ� site where oil is extracted from deep underground using steam and long pipes. This method reduces the environmental impact and is by far the most common. We heard from a great variety of speakers from all corners of the industry: power engineers, a vice president of communications, environmental technologists, a mayor, an executive chef, a wildlife biologist and many more. Although the industry is currently in a downturn, they still need to maintain their operations so when activity picks up, they want to be ready.
We toured a lake which is almost fully restored from a muskeg dump, where we spotted muskrats and birds. We also visited a tailings pond where environmental technologists monitor its condition and cannons were being used to keep wildlife away as it was not ready for habitat.
Tailings Pond
We visited a state of the art work camp which had a huge fitness centre, delicious food in the cafeteria, movie theatre, squash courts and more. We stayed overnight at another camp where we had our own heated room and bathroom. However, It was not a good idea to go outside, there had been recent bear visits! Pipelines carrying bitumen
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The residential areas of Fort McMurray looked much like Cloverdale but the homes were smaller to reduce heating costs as much as possible. Did you know that the people of Fort McMurray were the biggest donors to the United Way in Canada last year? They have also banned plastic bags! Someone with good employability skills may do well there if they acquire training and work experience before applying. Air quality technologists, millwrights, heavy equipment operators, engineers and medical officers are among the many careers that are in demand even today, as 20% of the workforce of just one oil company needs to be replaced due to retirement.�
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