Established in 1980, Northern Ontario Business provides Canadians and international investors with relevant, current and insightful editorial content and business news information about Ontario’s vibrant and resource-rich North.
In northwestern Ontario, mining companies struggling to find skilled workers may soon have a new recruitment ally on their side, and it comes in a most non-traditional package: a videogame.
Thunder Bay’s Oshki-Pimache-O-Win Education & Training Institute (OSHKI) has commissioned Algoma Games for Health (AGFH) in Sault Ste. Marie to develop an online videogame that will grab the attention of First Nations youth, in an effort to translate their heightened interest into careers in the mining industry.
OSHKI serves the Nishnawbe Aski Nation (NAN), a collection of 49 First Nation communities located throughout the region.
Gordon Kakegamic, OSHKI’s e-learning co-ordinator, said information about the mining industry on the internet often uses tech-based language and ideologies, which is difficult for the average youth reader to understand.
“We want to present that same kind of information in a different approach using methods that gamers use,” he said. “There are different strategies that programmers use to interact and engage people, and we’re trying to apply those same principles to the portal. It makes learning fun.”