NRT Training School - In the North for the North
It is fitting that, in 2006, while celebrating 20 successful years, NRT reached another milestone in its well-crafted strategy. NRT established the NRT Training School in La Ronge, a facility dedicated to driver training; an SGI-accredited educational presence in the north.
The NRT Training School works alongside Northlands College and the Saskatchewan Indian Institute of Technologies (SIIT) to provide a solid learning environment for northern young people. The job of the NRT Training School is to train drivers very specifically for the type of work NRT does in the north.
While much of NRT's driver training was, in past years, conducted in Saskatoon, it is now centred in the La Ronge training facility. The existing NRT building, with its office, yard, shop and warehouse, provides the ideal facility and – along with NRT trucks on the road – a very obvious presence in the north.
One of the most important decisions made in the establishment of this facility has been to locate it in the north. The school takes Class-5-licence drivers and turns them into professional operators. It is a huge learning curve just to acquire this skill. Thus it is important that The NRT Training School provide northern students training in their own back yard, creating a greater comfort level than if they were training in the city and subjected to the added pressure of adjusting from small community life to life in the city.
The school is presently focussing on its 1A training program. However, the infrastructure is in place to expand into a multi-training facility. NRT Training School has a large shop in which to teach basic maintenance and a warehouse ideal for fork lift operation and warehousing training. The yard is well suited to heavy equipment training. These are facilities the school can share with Northlands College and SIIT to contribute further to northern programming. NRT Training School has future plans to offer northern young people the opportunity to gain hands-on computer experience in data entry and dispatching and feel comfortable in an office environment. Many of these skills are present in the school's 8-week driver program and can be scheduled into individual programs.
NRT Safety, Training and Compliance Manager, Lloyd Driedger heads up the student driver courses. Lead Instructor Cam Graves, leads the team of SGI licensed instructors, Terry Robbins, Randy Mihilewicz, Paul Doell and Marvin Diebel
Throughout the years, NRT drivers have maintained an excellence and safety record that is unsurpassed in the industry.
A key ingredient in the make-up of NRT has always been a caring, nurturing environment in which the potential of northern young people can develop and grow. Besides being trained as competent operators, students have been schooled in life skills and financial management. A sizeable fleet of northern owner-operators, independent business people, speaks to the success of NRT's training program.
