Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So one of our priorities in this Assembly is workforce development. And I know we've spoken a lot about apprenticeships, the need for more apprenticeship opportunities. And we've often heard, including the other day from infrastructure, that one of the barriers is not being able to find enough Red Seals journeypersons to mentor and apprentice people who might be interested. However, I wanted to ask the Minister of education, are there apprenticeship opportunities that don't require a Red Seal? There may be many skills and trades out there that could -- that just need sort of more informal mentorship to learn a certain trade without needing a Red Seal.
Can the Minister comment on whether those kinds of opportunities are available either for SNAP students or other types of apprenticeships. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member from Yellowknife North. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So, Mr. Speaker, there are certainly, you know, things like work experience and certain labour roles, of course, that people don't need to be under a Red Seal person or -- let me start over, Mr. Speaker. Sorry.
So the answer to the Member's question essentially is yes, there are ways that we can do this in the Northwest Territories. So in the Northwest Territories, you don't need to be supervised by a Red Seal tradesperson. You can be supervised by a journeyperson. This is in our regulations.
A journeyperson is someone who has completed at least 72 hours of work experience in that specific trade. And I will wait for the Member's other questions before I try to answer all of them in one response. Thank you.
Thank you, Madam Chair. And so to the extent that we're struggling to find placements for SNAP students or those entering into these kinds of programs, have we clearly spread the word, communicated to communities that we're looking for experienced journeypersons of all kinds to be able to mentor people to find more opportunities for those placements? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. So, Mr. Speaker, I try to talk about things like SNAP as much as I can in the House to the point where I feel like sometimes I must drive my colleagues a little bit nuts, and I hope they are all well acquainted with SNAP. I've also done things like send out information through email to Members so that they've got the information at their fingertips. And it's also shared with schools through career and education advisors who work directly with our students across the Northwest Territories. But I do agree that I think there is always ways that we can better communicate and better share this information. And I think this is one of those key moments where we also need to say who's our audience. And, you know, I wouldn't say that any of us in this room are well-versed in TikTok, but I think that that might be a better way to share this information. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Final supplementary. Member from Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So I know a number of government departments themselves, infrastructure, housing, in business plans have their own targets for numbers of apprentices. And so what is the Minister doing to work with other departments to try to meet those targets in business plans around apprenticeships to find, perhaps, government employees who may not be red-sealed but might be experienced journeypersons to take on those apprentices? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. So, Mr. Speaker, I don't just talk in the House about SNAP; I also speak to all of my colleagues. I've sat down with the Minister of housing, I've sat down with the -- well, Minister of strategic infrastructure when she was the Minister of Infrastructure, sat down with the Minister, as well, of Finance, who is also the Minister of human resources, to ensure that the government is also playing a part when it comes to making sure that we're supporting the growth of apprentices. A lot of times people in communities who are journeypersons, who are Red Seal tradespeople, do work for the Government of the Northwest Territories in some form, and so making sure that we are capitalizing on our human capital as best as possible across the territory is critically important to our success in this area. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Oral questions. Member from Yellowknife Centre.
