Students of the first Saskatchewan Indigenous and women pilot training program are one step closer to achieving their dreams of becoming pilots.
Jeremy Adam is one of nine students part of the Dziret’ái Pilot Training Program. The class just completed ground school and starts flight training at Mitchinson Flight Centre in Saskatoon.
“I’m looking forward to travelling in the mine sites,” Adam said when looking at his future of flying.
“Drop off my dad and my brothers at work. That was the whole point of doing this, really, just to show them I can do a lot of cool things too.”
The program started in September 2024, with successful graduates getting their pilot licence in 2026.
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It’s designed to support Indigenous and women trainees, and funded by several organizations, including Rise Air, an Indigenous owned airline.
And with the help of the organization, the program is free for students.
“I’ve never had anything provided for me like that before,” Adam said. “The fact that they all came together and paid everything for us is really great.”
Reina Roberts is another student completing the program. She and her classmates just started flying solo.
“You have tower telling you what to do, but they’re there to help you,” Roberts explained. “It’s just really amazing to fly by myself for the first time.”
Once the pilots graduate, they will get to work for Rise Air and continue to learn how to fly different aircrafts.
“They all have had conditional job offers, and of course those are conditional on successfully completing the program,” Derek Nice, the Rise Air CEO said.
Nice explained how programs like this can help combat the global pilot shortage, especially in areas like northern Saskatchewan.
“Many pilots feel that an airline like Rise Air is a stepping stone to those bigger airlines,” Nice said. “We are very much focused on building a pilot workforce that is committed to Saskatchewan.”
For Roberts, she hopes Indigenous youth seeing more people like them in aviation helps them start a career in the sky.
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