The Environmental Skills Internship Project: Cleaning Up on Skills Training in Cape Breton’s Budding Environment Sector

This case study looks at the impact and benefits that ECO Canada’s Environmental Skills Internship (ESI) project is having on local businesses within the environment sector in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. It explores how the ESI project affects the capacity of organizations to maximize their human resource potential, recruit and develop skilled personnel, and contribute to the building of the local economy. It also considers the project’s Keys to Success and its potential use as a model for other Sector Council programs.

The ESI project is successful because it keeps in close contact with industry and ensures that the program addresses the human resource needs of employers. It continues to assist recent graduates and displaced workers to make their way into the environmental industry in the Cape Breton region, while helping local businesses to build their human resource capacity and ability to bid on pending remediation and clean-up projects.