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Canada has staked its future on the oil sands. In November, Report on Business magazine together with Thomson Reuters examine what that means both at home and abroad. Read more from the issue at tgam.ca/oil.

It’s already hard for businesses in the oil sands to find skilled labour and it’s about to get worse: According to the Petroleum Human Resources Council of Canada, the number of oil- and gas-related jobs will grow by between 9% to 20% by 2022. Those jobs come with fat paycheques, too—the average weekly wage in Alberta was $2,067 as of December, 2013. That’s up 73% since 2001—driven largely by the oil sands. Trying to help fill the gap are two specialized Alberta schools: the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology’s MacPhail School of Energy—which has 14 programs and boasts that graduates have a 90% employment rate—and Fort McMurray’s own Keyano College, which focuses on apprenticeship programs where students spend 80% of their time in the field.

An apprentice in Keyano College’s crane and hoisting-equipment operator program practises a lift exercise.

Students in Keyano College’s heavy-equipment tech program review training materials.

SAIT Polytechnic’s Adrian McFarlane teaches second-year advanced well-design students how to use a 3-D drill simulator—the only one of its kind at a Canadian school.