Nicole Kemp was still in high school when she decided that she wanted to work in aviation. 

“It’s just something my uncle told me about when I was 16 years old,” said Kemp.

“He was describing his friend’s job to me and I guess that’s when I decided that this is what I’m going to do.” 

On Wednesday, Kemp was one of the keynote speakers at an aerospace and aviation showcase aimed at getting more Indigenous people involved in the industry. 

Speaking to a group of over 200 Indigenous adult education students at the Neeginan Centre in Winnipeg, Kemp talked about having a son while she was still in high school and having to wait an extra year to apply for the Aircraft Maintenance Engineer program at the Stevenson Campus at Red River College.

Kemp had another child before she finished the program and has been working as an aircraft maintenance engineer for 13 years. One of her favourite things about fixing planes is that her days are never filled with the same tasks. 

“I get to think outside the box a lot… I’m small so I can’t physically do some of the things a man can do, but I can get the job done,” said Kemp.

Now working at Keewatin Air, an air medical and air transport service operating in Manitoba and Nunavut, Kemp said that there are still very few Indigenous people that she knows who are working within the industry.

According to a 2018 labour market report by the Canadian Council for Aviation and Aerospace, Indigenous people make up four per cent of the general workforce but only three per cent of the total aerospace workforce.

Getting more Indigenous people involved

Kimberly Ballantyne has wanted to be a pilot since she was four. Her career journey has seen her go back and forth between her community, Opaskwayak Cree Nation, and Winnipeg, working in human resources and marketing, and now she’s working on getting her private pilot’s licence.

In 2019 she applied for a job as a recruitment specialist with Manitoba Aerospace. Not too long after being hired, she pitched to them the idea of hosting a career fair aimed specifically at Indigenous people.

According to a 2018 labour market Information study compiled by Manitoba Aerospace, there will be a need for over 2,000 workers in Manitoba’s aerospace and aviation industries over the next three to five years. The industry is hoping to tap into an underutilized Indigenous workforce.

Ballantyne said one of the common misconceptions that Indigenous people have about gaining employment within the industry is that you need a lengthy post-secondary education.

“Some of the training can take up to 10 months,” she said. “And like I mentioned Neeginan College of Applied Technology offers that training right here in-house.”

Ballantyne invited over 20 different aviation companies and organizations to set up a booth at the event. One of them was Michelle Carrier’s. Carrier is a recruiter for the University of Manitoba’s Engineering Access Program (ENGAP).

The program has an aerospace option and she said it’s important for Indigenous people to be a part of designing things in the future. 

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