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Pipeline company funds safety education

A donation from a pipeline construction company will allow 24 students to take an occupational health and safety officer course at no charge.
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Dale O'Dwyer, a safety manager with TransCanada, speaks Tuesday at UNBC about a partnership between the university and his firm.

A donation from a pipeline construction company will allow 24 students to take an occupational health and safety officer course at no charge.

TransCanada's Prince Rupert Gas Transmission project donated $82,500 to UNBC so that the $7,000 course would be free for a single cohort of students. The project aims to construct a natural gas pipeline from a point north of Hudson's Hope to a proposed liquefied natural gas facility on Lelu Island close to Prince Rupert.

"We're very pleased with this donation from TransCanada to UNBC to help fund student spaces in the occupational health and safety officer course that's offered through continuing studies here at UNBC," said Mark Dale, the university's interim president. "As we know, the natural resource sector is growing and there is increasing need to have qualified occupational health and safety officers. This program will help meet that need."

"It's important to build a strong, skilled workforce in Northern B.C. and we can't emphasize enough how important this is to TransCanada," said Dale O'Dwyer, a safety manager with TransCanada. "Should even a few of the LNG projects go [ahead] and the related natural pipeline approved, the demands on the labour force [would be] significant."

The course, which has existed at UNBC in various forms over the last eight years, teaches students a variety of skills, from developing emergency plans, understanding safety legislation and auditing an organization's overall safety system, over a period of nine weeks.

"We believe that the programs that create a safe work environment are just as important as the construction," O'Dwyer said. "As such, the occupational health and safety officer training will form an integral part of the future labour force."

The course has been slightly modified to meet the needs of the pipeline company. The final day of the course has subjects specific to pipelines, but the rest of it is general enough to fit the needs of ten major industries, said Lisa Haslett, manager of continuing studies at UNBC.

The 24 students have not been selected yet.

"People need to apply to be part of the program and then out of the applications that come in, we'll select [24] people based on eligibility," she said, adding the university would be sending out application packages.

To be eligible one has to be 19 or over, be fit enough to handle the demands of construction, supply a resume, write an essay about why they want to take the course, and either have a Grade 12 education or complete an assessment.

"We only have a select number of seats that this money allows us to give tuition-free and after that people could, if they wanted to, sign up for a paid program," Haslett said.

One of the people who chose to pay for the course was Sherry Earles, who choose to take it in March after she became unemployed. She said the course brought in speakers and gave her access to a network of resources and connections. One of the highlights for her was the hands-on experience.

"We also went out and did some site tours," she said. "We did some inspections in different facilities and to me, that was very important."

Earles said she was taking additional safety training, which she hoped would result in future employment.