Matawa launches new employment and training program

Matawa First Nations launched Kiikenomaga Kikenjigewen (Kiiki) Oct. 19 to replace Matawa Employment and Training (MET).
Kiiki is specifically geared toward assisting individuals in education and training within Matawa First Nations communities.
Kiiki manager Morris Wapoose said the new program is a major step up from MET.
“We have much more control over the program now,” Wapoose said, explaining the agreement that governed MET left it serving as a local delivery mechanism instead of a decision-maker. “That impacted people’s ability to get training.”
Under the former agreement, MET wasn’t a recognized organization able to apply for funding on its own.
Kiiki will allow more control, Wapoose said.
“The people who use our services will see a huge difference,” Wapoose said. “We can identify and accommodate our own needs. We can get into more specialty training. What I see in the long-run is accommodating the employer labour force and get into customized training.”
That could be especially important as Matawa is working toward getting members ready for a potential job boom coming with the Ring of Fire development. The area is home to a large chromite deposit, used to make stainless steel. It also sits within the traditional lands of Marten Falls and Webequie.
“With construction and employment still a few years away there is an opportunity for our people to prepare themselves,” Matawa First Nations CEO David Paul Achneepineskum said.
“Workforce development has been identified as a high priority among Matawa communities.”
He said very few Matawa members have the skills and training needed to participate in the growing mineral exploration and development sector. Literacy and numeracy is also a challenge where the academic level of most young people is below the high school level. 
But Achneepineskum wants people to be ready as new estimates show the potential workforce in the Ring of Fire development could top 3,000 on-going operations jobs and 3,600 construction jobs.
Wapoose said getting youth prepared for these jobs is key.
“Our new organization will place a major emphasis on encouraging our young people,” he said. “Kiiki will assist our young people to better understand industry, will provide motivation to complete education and create employment community coordinators who will provide programming in each First Nation addressing employment and training issues.”