THUNDER BAY – Oshki-Pimache-O-Win Education and Training Institute has plans for new $2 million mobile unit that will help provide more trades training opportunities for First Nations youth.
The institute will receive $2.7 million in Federal funding for its Pathways to Prosperous Future project.
The project will enable the institute to provide specialized training for First Nations people in communities across the Nishnawbe Aski Nation.
Oshki-Pimache-o-win Education and Training Institute executive director Rosie Mosquito said the funding will help with the construction of a trades training mobile lab.
“We will be able to provide specialized and trades training to our people,” Mosquito said. “Of course, our target will be our communities in Nishnawbe Aski Nation, because that’s where our mandate is.”
She added one of the main reasons the institute exists is to provides an alternative for people who don’t want to leave their home communities.
Mosquito said there are quite a few communities in the southern portion of the Nishnawbe Aski Nation territory with access to roads, and she envisions going into those areas once they have other programming.
“Through our innovative programming we are able to provide education opportunities for them, so with the mobile unit we can bring trades training closer to them.”
The impact could be tremendous, she said.
“We are finding with some of our pre-skills training projects it appeals to a lot of your young people,” she said.
“We have about 12 weeks of classroom instruction and then hands-on training and that’s kind of the innovative programming that we provide, and that’s what makes it really effective.”
Mosquito added that the institution should have access to the mobile unit within the next year.
This funding will also be used to upgrade trades labs at Dennis Franklin Cromarty High School.
