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Choose an Exciting and Diverse Career in Drilling

Published

Lindsay, ON (March 7, 2024) – Choose where you want to work. Choose who you want to work for.

For Fleming College Resource Drilling Technician (RDT) students, this is a reality. Upon graduation, these highly skilled students are stepping into lucrative paying positions within a rapidly expanding industry.

Fleming College is the only post-secondary institution in North America offering a two-year diploma program in drilling. It is also the only RDT program that encompasses technical training and theory with an intense focus on hands-on learning.

A common first semester allows students to explore different career paths and provides them with a well-rounded education which covers everything from math and communications to rock and soil analysis. RDT students can also obtain their Indigenous Perspectives Designation, a distinction unique to Fleming College, and considered an asset to employers.

Most of the program is dedicated to hands-on training, using the same equipment students will use in the field. Most of that equipment has been donated to the college by leading members of the drilling industry.

Students also learn how to diagnose equipment issues and repair machinery in the field, a skill that can potentially save employers thousands of dollars.

The demand for Fleming College drilling graduates allows students to choose their adventure and start their careers on their terms, whether they want to live in Downtown Toronto and enjoy the city life or are more on the adventurous side and want to take a helicopter to work.

Careers in the drilling industry can vary widely, from owning your own company, working in a management position or specializing in a niche aspect of drilling.

A Geotechnical driller is needed at the start of every large construction project, to conduct a subsurface investigation and drill for soil samples. Construction drilling is utilized in roadwork, infrastructure projects and building bridges.

Drillers are an essential part of well design, construction, and maintenance. Horizontal directional drilling is used to get underneath roads, rivers, and streams. Environmental drilling focuses on obtaining soil and water samples for analysis to control and remediate contaminates. This work is done around fuel service stations, mines, landfills, and abandoned buildings.

Fleming is launching a new component to its program in the fall of 2024 which focuses on the growing field of Geothermal drilling. This new aspect to the program will put Fleming students at the forefront of the green energy sector.

The RDT program is open to both domestic and international students.

Each student receives an automatic bursary of $500 at the start of their second semester and there are 19 scholarships and bursaries available to drilling students, totaling more than $32,000. Some of these scholarships are available specifically to women looking to start a career in skilled trades.

Fleming College students can be proudly found in every aspect of the North American drilling sector. Many of the program’s alumni are now industry leaders, working in management positions or entrepreneurs with their own companies.

Year after year those industry leaders return to Fleming College, looking to hire Fleming students with the same high-quality education they received.

The Resource Drilling Technician Program is located at Fleming College’s Frost Campus in Lindsay, ON. Visit here for more information and to schedule a tour of the campus.

About Fleming College
Fleming College respectfully acknowledges that we are situated on Michi Saagiig Anishinaabeg lands and territory. Located in the heart of Central Ontario, Fleming College has campus locations in Peterborough, Lindsay, Cobourg and Haliburton. Named for famous Canadian inventor and engineer Sir Sandford Fleming, the college features more than 100 full-time programs in Arts and Heritage, Business, Environmental and Natural Resource Sciences, General Arts and Sciences, Health and Wellness, Justice and Community Development, Skilled Trades and Technology, and Continuing Education. Fleming College has more than 6,800 full-time and 10,000 part-time students, and 80,000 alumni.

For media enquiries, please contact:
Sarah Deeth
Communications Officer
sarah.deeth@flemingcollege.ca
705-749-5530 ext. 1161

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