Challenging transitions: trades and trade-offs for racialised youth in Canada’s mining industry

Abstract

This article examines the precarious learning-to-work transitions experienced by aboriginal youth in the Canadian oil sands mining industry. Drawing from an empirical case study of a mine-sponsored, pre-apprenticeship training programme, challenges experienced by programme participants, as well as their socialisation into the world of work are examined. As a group that is considered ‘at-risk’, aboriginal youth in resource rich regions are also vulnerable to being targeted as a source of racialised labour by companies who want to appease local resentment over land dispossession and environmental pollution occurring on traditional lands. Informed by the sociology of Pierre Bourdieu and the concept of ‘vocational habitus’, the inquiry critically examines the sets of dispositions that become embodied in training participants, which I argue align with the reputational risk management objectives of the sponsoring company.

Keywords:

• Aboriginal
• Canadian oil sands
• vocational education and training
• Bourdieu
• vocational habitus

Acknowledgements

I wish to thank Diane Hirshberg (University of Alaska, Anchorage), and two anonymous reviewers for providing detailed and useful suggestions that were used to improve this manuscript.

Notes

1. Aboriginal refers to people in Canada who identify as being of First Nations, Inuit or Métis descent.

2. Megaprojects refer to large-scale investment projects that can have substantial environmental and social impacts. In Canada, that often associated with non-renewable resource extractive industries.

3. The term borrows from the Marxist concept of labour power as representing capabilities set in motion whenever a use-value of any kind is produced (Marx, 1867/1990, p. 270). By extension, racialised labour power is sought in order to provide additional symbolic value to capitalists beyond immediate production of a use-value.

4. According to the Government of Alberta (n.d.) 121,500 Albertans were employed in the oil sands industry in 2012; nationally the oil sands also affects the jobs of 112,000 people who live outside of the province.

5. To denote interviews FG-1 refers to focus group 1, I-1 refers to interview 1, and M/F refer to male and female.

6. One female student declined to be interviewed a second time.

7. The mine-funded tuition, student travel and student-living support. These funds were matched by the provincial government (35%), and the federal government funding agreements that aboriginal groups receive (15%).

8. The Trades Entrance Exam (TEE) is designed to prove that apprenticeship candidates have the basic educational requirements for technical training in a particular trade. Test of Workplace Essential Skills (TOWES) is an exam required by the mine sponsor, and tests for workplace essential skills (working with others, reading, numeracy, writing, oral communication, thinking skills, computers). General Equivalency Diploma (GED) is a high school equivalency exam; students must be 18 years old and out of school for more than 10 consecutive months.

9. CCC is a provincially accredited programme that was developed in consultation with industry. Topics include ‘Pre-apprenticeship Preparation’ (academic skill enhancement), ‘Career exploration’, ‘Working as an Aboriginal in a Culturally Diverse Environment’ (personal communication, Programme Executive Summary, 2010).

10. A programme classroom featured four posters from the sponsoring company and five college posters, including two specific to the programme and three featuring local aboriginal leaders. Mine posters featured smiling workers attired with hard hats and work-wear, and included the captions, ‘Achieve your goals’, ‘It’s very rewarding’ and ‘A great work environment’.