Building Capacity Through Nalunaiqsijiit: The Inuit Cruise Training Initiative With the official formation of the AECO Community Engagement Committee in 2018, Quark Expeditions and other members of the committee have been working hard to explore opportunities for collaboration between AECO members and communities in the North. One existing program, Nalunaiqsijiit—The Inuit Cruise Training Initiative (ICTI) in Nunavut, stood out as an exciting opportunity to collaborate with Inuit communities to create opportunities and support the growth of more engaged tourism in their land. Nalunaiqsijiit is a program fully funded and coordinated by the Government of Nunavut, which includes in situ training and experience on board ships as part of the program that had room for development. It launched in October 2017, providing ten Nunavummiut with all the qualifications and certifications required to work on board expedition cruise ships.
Quark Expeditions is committed to dedicating a significant amount of resources and training parameters to further develop the program. As part of Quark Expeditions and AECO members’ commitment to community engagement, Quark Expeditions hosted two ICTI interns on Ocean Adventurer voyages traveling to Nunavut during the Arctic 2019 season. Quark Expeditions has invited an additional four interns on board Ocean Endeavour during the 2019/20 Antarctic season. These internships are an exciting new opportunity for Quark Expeditions. While these are somewhat uncharted waters for us, we will be working closely with the government of Nunavut and the lead instructor at Nalunaiqsijiit, an Inuk from Nunatsiavut, to prepare the interns for their experience on board our ships. Partnering with these groups will allow us to communicate to our teams the expectations for their participation, mentorship, and ongoing capacity building while they are on board. If the internship and training are successful, we hope to continue to engage with and hopefully contract these new guides for future work within our expedition team!
THE PROGRAM COMBINES THREE PHASES: 1. Training in Iqaluit
2. Internship experience on a ship 3. Consolidation of learning and training certificates in Iqaluit
47 | For more information, contact Quark Expeditions at Sustainability@QuarkExpeditions.com
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