Accelerated programming puts student on career track

Sherri-Ann Nedland is one of many Aboriginal students at the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology who looks forward to a bright future. Having recently completed her on-campus final semester in the accelerated Water and Wastewater Operator program is a relief.

“I don’t have to carry that huge back pack of books around with me anymore,” she said. Now she is looking forward to her final assignment, a four-month work term.

Nedland needed to improve her high school marks before she could begin her program. “I started upgrading in September of 2011, and being at the main campus was helpful because of the Encana Aboriginal Student Centre. They really helped me,” she said. “Once in the program on the Calgary campus, the year of courses went by so fast. The fact that you are a starving student means you are so busy studying that you don’t have time to go do social things and the time just flies.”

Graduates of the Water and Wastewater Operator program typically work with municipal public works departments and contractors who operate these types of facilities. In cities, towns and villages, they might be responsible for water and sewer line repair and street maintenance and often involves working with large equipment.

Nedland is from Fort Smith in the Northwest Territories, a member of the Salt River First Nation.

“I have never spent much time there but was raised in northern BC, in the Chetwynd area before we moved to Alberta,” she said. She used to see advertisements where various municipalities were hiring for the position and friends in the industry loved their careers. “I applied to the program and they said I needed to upgrade. Once I had Math 30 and Science 30, which meant switching from right brain to left brain, then I was eligible. They weren’t easy courses but they got me into the program.”

In the future she’d like to enjoy some travel experiences and has put any plans to start a family on hold. Over the years, she found time to volunteer at the Fort McMurray SPCA and enjoyed working with the animals in her spare time.

The work experience is likely to turn into full time work, she said.
“And if I use the same determination and dedication that I had going through school, I have great expectations of staying on. Then I can apply to get to one of the jobsites in Fort McMurray, which is where I want to be,” she added.

Nedland urges young people to realize the importance of post-secondary education.

“I was working at entry-level positions where I would receive some training but the bad thing about that was I was always getting laid-off. It might be months before I’d get regular work again. I needed something that would be permanent,” she said. “This career is high-demand, there’s not enough skilled workers in Alberta in this industry, so I have great job security and I enjoy the work so it’s a perfect career for me.”