Chief Larry Ahenekew (centre) is joined by his councillors and Elder Senator Fred Sasakamoose who cut the ribbon on the new employment and training building in Ahtahkakoop on Wednesday. Also with the ribbon are from left, Director of Education and Training Kerry Sasakamoose, Ashton Williams, Albertine Masuskapoe and Director of Social Development Christine Pechawis. (submitted photo/Alexis Christensen, BATC)

By Glenn Hicks

building the future

New employment and training site opens

Jan 29, 2020 | 5:00 PM

A special facility for a First Nation community northwest of Prince Albert has opened with the hopes it can help get young people into the workplace.

The Ahtahkakoop Employment, Training and Social Building had its grand opening Wednesday.

“It offers employment information with the band. You can take safety tickets here, get help doing resumes, connect with job opportunities, even get a ride to [an employer],” Alexis Christensen, the director of communications for the Battlefords Agency Tribal Chiefs (BATC), told paNOW. “It’s a one-stop-shop to ensure opportunities and success.”

The fully-renovated building, which is the former welfare office and before that housed the band office in the 1970s, is a nod to what is possible when embracing learning: over a dozen local trades students did the work under the guidance of their mentors.

“It’s just an amazing story that we replaced that [old] building, which shows we are evolving, and our own students built it [as well],” Christensen explained. “The students got on-the-job experience now they have skills in framing, dry-walling, the works, and if they decide to venture off and join a company, they’re prepared.”

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The two-storey site, which is a partnership between the Atoskewin Success Centre in North Battleford and the Ahtahkakoop First Nation, will house the education, training and employment services and staff. In addition, it has a beauty salon which is a satellite version of the program offered in North Battleford.

Students-in-training will be able to drop by the new location and Christensen said there may be future opportunities to offer some courses there.

Learning and preparing for success were very much part of the festivities Wednesday with students embracing the occasion, including those involved in land-based learning.

“They provided the fire, they helped elder Fred Sasakamoose do all the smudging and ceremony, and they even cooked lunch for over a hundred people,” she said. “It was a great feeling to have all these students as the foundation to it all.”

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glenn.hicks@jpbg.ca

On Twitter:@princealbert