Access to training an issue.

Remote areas cite lack of training programs as a challenge

A just-released document identifying socio-economic trends in Sault Ste. Marie and the Algoma district points out that apprenticeship shortages, a need for skilled trades and software application training and finding better ways to deliver that training are among the issues facing people in the area.

The annual environmental scan released this month by the Algoma Training Board offers no great surprises from previous years, says executive director David Chuipka, in their analysis of labour market information. and in comments collected from the public during community feedback sessions.

The training board, which covers 51,207 square kilometres from White River in the northwest to Spanish in the east, is a non-profit organization sponsored by the Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities, and Human Resources Canada.

Chuipka says during consultation sessions he has encountered a "level of frustration" among many respondents in Sault Ste. Marie, Wawa and Elliot Lake.

"They realize there's lot more potential, but financial backing (in obtaining) funding for training or development courses is a real challenge."

The lack of post-secondary programs in outlying areas, especially in communities along Lake Huron's north shore where there is no strong presence by community colleges and universities, was identified as a major sticking point.

The result has been a growing exodus of young people searching for educational and job opportunities elsewhere.

In the north end of Algoma, the need to educate employers on the advantages of training and continued professional development was listed as a priority item.

Skills shortages in the health-care professions doctors, nurses, pharmacists and in the skilled trades, were tabbed in most areas as both immediate and long-term problems.

Apprenticeship training continues to be a major issue exacerbated by the retirements of many skilled works now in their 50s, underscoring the need to fill training gaps.

Chuipka suspects few area businesses have the foresight to consider succession and human resources when planning ahead on how to replace their aging skilled workers. Creating incentives for employers to take on apprentices might be the answer.

"If you're trying to run a small business, I can imagine the challenge of trying to meet the daily and weekly needs out there," says Chuipka. "Sometimes it's hard to see forest for the trees. We knew 10 years ago there would be apprenticeship shortages, that the average age of most skilled tradesmen is 55 and up."

Chuipka believes the continued expansion of a fibre optic, broadband network by telecommunications co-operatives like ADnet throughout the Algoma district may unlock some potential opportunities for e-learning and distance, education down the road.

"It's a public education thing," saysChuipka, in suggesting that companies should band together to. upgrade their employee training through the knowledge-based technologies. "If you get a critical mass, the cost of training goes down dramatically."

As in past scans it is believed the population of Algoma has decreased over the last five years, but there is no up-to-date information to support that, since the only reliable source is the 1996 census. More recent census information will not be available until 2003.

However, migration rates obtained through FedNor have shown a steady siphoning of people out of Algoma - almost doubling from 965 in 1996-97 to 1,841 in 1998-99 - in most age groupings up to 44.

Though there was no dramatic change in the Sault labour market through the first three months of 2001, the opening of two more call centres and 350 new jobs was a definite improvement over March of the previous year.

An ongoing source of frustration, Chuipka mentions, is obtaining reliable and timely labour market information about the area. By not being classified as a regional centre, the Sault is lumped in with dozens of other communities in northeastern Ontario known as Economic Region 590.

"We're at the point where the technology is there, but we should be able to do things quicker. When you look at the big picture and the millions and millions of dollars spent, it would be incumbent on the powers that be to invest more on getting better information."

Gathering first-hand labour market figures is tough enough since some businesses refuse to divulge that kind of information. As a result, the e-scan document, which is also distributed to various levels of government decision and policy-makers, represents only an economic "snapshot" reference tool for leaders to find ways to stimulate the economy and support new growth.

"If there is a great need, there will be a government move to change things. It's just difficult when we're in an economy locally that's depressed compared to the rest of the province that's still relatively booming. We're very much in the minority."

Chuipka says with no new monies coming out of either federal or provincial coffers, it is incumbent upon northerners to develop a bottom-up, grassroots entrepreneurial spirit towards economic sustainability. With only 124,000 people in Algoma, their pleas to the government can easily be drowned out by any number - of southern Ontario cities.

"If we want to be a force to be recognized we have to find more ways to collaborate and work as a unit.

"Generally people want to see more investment, but the challenge is to change our mindset into the new global reality of the way businesses and communities operate. We're slowly moving in that direction, but if you don't move quick enough, you tend to get left behind."

Training board officials planned to take to the road in late July on a communities outreach tour to discuss with organizations and concerned citizens the results of their findings and how these issues can be addressed.

The board is also assembling a database inventory of employment-related and training programs and services in the district and plans to post it on their Web site by early 2002.

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