ETHAN LOU TELEGRAPH-JOURNAL 

Corrina Merasty-Gallant and Shannon Polches are part of a First Nations program for information and communications technology and are currently doing summer internships in Fredericton. They are among more than 150 currently in the program, a $4.1-million partnership started last year between the public and private sector.
PHOTO: ETHAN LOU/TELEGRAPH-JOURNAL

On Shannon Polches and Corrina Merasty-Gallant’s first day as interns, they requested a complete report of the firm’s operations, a move their boss said speaks to immense entrepreneurial drive.

The two are among more than 150 in a First Nations program for information and communications technology, and they are currently interning at a Fredericton ICT firm.

The program – launched last year by the Joint Economic Development Initiative Inc., a government-linked First Nations organization – aims to train up to 150 aboriginals for New Brunswick ICT careers by 2014, a response to the industry’s manpower demand in the province.

JEDI president Alex Dedam said the aboriginal community represents an untapped talent pool the industry can harness.

“There is a need for highly skilled programmers, highly skilled workers in the ICT sector,”he said.

“Certainly, we looked at the high unemployment in our area and we looked at the needs of the ICT industry and we consulted with the ICT sector … and said, ‘How can we do this? How can we train a battery of people that will be available for the ICT industry?” The program is a $4.1-million partnership between the public and private sector, funded by Human Resources and Skills Development Canada and the Department of Post-Secondary, Training and Labour.

It has two phases, the first of which – introduction courses – 95 already went through.

Polches and Merasty-Gallant’s internships are part of the second stage, where they study app development at the Collège communautaire du Nouveau-Brunswick, a partner of the program.

That stage features a range of options for those who want to specialize in different things, said Dedam, so that participants are ready for the wide spectrum of jobs.

“The career opportunities here are that they will end up as developers for mobile apps or designers or they can also go to computer programming and various other positions that are in the industry,”he said.

He added the program also benefits the aboriginal community, with an educated workforce aiding not just the economy but also coming with fringe benefits.

“For one thing, they will be off the burden of the community,” he said.”They’ll be able to provide a lot of opportunities for their families.” However, Dedam said he does foresee a challenge: outward migration to the bigger cities due to most technology firms being there.

“While we are trying to improve the economic situation of our people, we may be inadvertently pulling the brighter people away from the community,” he said, but adding it could be mitigated by the increasing interconnectedness between areas.

After all, he said,”programming can be done anywhere, as long as you have the equipment.” And for Polches and Merasty-Gallant, the program is transpiring into bigger opportunities even before they complete it.

The duo is two-fifths of app startup called Smack Apps, a mobile development firm they plan to form with three other program participants after graduation.

“We’re going to offer interactive web pages and mobile applications for businesses that don’t already have those and want to keep up with the demands of technology,”she said.

“We recognize that the IT industry is growing and it is moving fast … We’re excited about the course and we want to take it as far as we can go.”