An investment to support training efforts at Port Saint John.
On Monday, the provincial government announced a $480,000 investment that will support the Port of Saint John Employers Association’s first-ever purchase of training simulators.
“We are continuing to build on our province’s economic success by further supporting the unprecedented momentum that Port Saint John is experiencing,” said Post-Secondary Education, Training, and Labour Minister Trevor Holder.
The funds from the province helped the employers association purchase two simulators, one focused on port-specific equipment and one on construction equipment.
The simulators will be critical to ensure the port has the skilled workforce it needs to continue to grow.
“We also need to make sure that the port has modern equipment, and that’s the most important thing that we’re announcing here, they need to have modern equipment so that they can get trained in record time, but more importantly that they do it in a safe environment, and that’s what these simulators accomplish,” mentioned Holder.
The simulators are expected to reduce the time it takes to have employees fully proficient in various roles and will improve the assessment of training candidates.
“It’s a major investment in time, that’s a lot of the problems that we would’ve had before these simulators arriving here is just the availability to get the people trained, now with the simulators we can do it in a shorter amount of time so we can get the new people up in running and in the skills, ready to work sooner and faster, so it’s a game-changer,” said Jen Brun, vice president, and general manager of the association.
Brun mentioned without the simulators it typically takes six to eight months to train a new employee on how to operate a container crane.
“Right now, we started an individual on May 9, and they are already up in the crane for their coaching phase, so we’re looking at close to six to eight weeks, so six to eight months to six to eight weeks.”
There will be several training scenarios associated with the simulators that will teach over a dozen different skills utilized in port operations.
So far, two individuals have used one of the simulators, and Brun added their experience was positive.
“To be able to have a live operation in a simulator, while it doesn’t replace the live operation, it does simulate the fact that once someone gets there they’re in it, and is also beneficial for the member companies because they don’t have to worry about down time in getting the individual up to speed because the only way to train in the past was when the vessel was there.”
The provincial funding is through WorkingNB as part of the Canada-New Brunswick Labour Market Agreements.
A funding announcement related to training for the @PortSaintJohn workforce is to begin. pic.twitter.com/fOcxOMxzJ7
— Tim Herd (@timherdradio) June 6, 2022