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Ken Gousseau
Medicine Hat News
Exciting Opportunities!

The Medicine Hat College Brooks campus is planning to offer several
exciting new opportunities to students in 2009.
The college is in the process of bringing a rig technician training
program to the campus this spring. Officials at the institution are
working with drilling companies and other industry players to try to
muster support for the program.
“There’s certainly a downturn in the drilling industry and rig
utilization,” said Reg Radke, manager of the Brooks campus. “But
we’re hoping that this might be a time where some of these people can
take some time to get their designation as a rig technician.”
Rig technician certification allows students to work as a motorhand,
derrickhand or driller on oil and gas drilling rigs. Between 12 and 24
students would be admitted to the program, which would offer two
intakes each year.
Also new this year are free noon-hour videoconference sessions,
facilitated by a recent agreement between the college and Community
Futures Entre-Corp.
Sessions were offered two days a week in February and May, featuring
presenters from across the province on subjects such as fertilizer
alternatives for farming.
The videoconferencing technology has also been used to deliver an
education assistant course from the college’s Medicine Hat campus to
the Brooks campus.
“We’re hoping to do more of that to make courses accessible to students
here in Brooks and the district,” Radke said.
The Brooks campus is currently working on about three other initiatives
for the fall, but officials couldn’t provide any details on them yet.
WORKING WITH
Steadfast Customer Service
YOU FOR OVER
Ken Gousseau
Medicine Hat News
“The Right Way to get things done!”
30 YEARS!
Impressions Jewellery has made a big impression on customers with their steadfast
DEALERS FOR:
focus on customer service.
• HILTI “We provide over-the-top customer service,” says Irene Kloepper, who owns the
• HUSQVARNA
Brooks-based business with her husband Alan. “If our customers aren’t happy, we’re
• DEWALT
not happy.”
• BRIGGS & STRATTON
The Kloeppers opened the store in 2007 after taking over the Richardson’s Jewellery
location in Brooks, where Irene had worked for the previous decade.
The business was a family affair, with the Kloepper’s three daughters all working at
WE
SOUTHERN ALBERTA’S
NEWEST AUTHORIZED the store.
DELIVER!! FLAMAN RENTALS
DEALER!
“All girls love jewellery,” Irene laughs.
Since then, one of the Kloepper’s daughters has been away on maternity leave and
• Aerial Lifts • Air Nailers • Hammer Drills • Trailers
• Air Tools • Bobcats/Forklifts • Metal Detectors • Tents/Tables/Chairs
another is at home raising a young child.
• Air Compressors • Industrial Heaters • Hand & Power Threaders • Light Towers
Their third daughter is still working at the store, however, and is currently enrolled
• Compaction Equipment • Insulated Tarps • Lawn & Garden Tools • Flooring Equipment
in a graduate jeweller course.
• Concrete Equipment • Post Pounders • Generators/Pumps • Mini Excavator
• Lineup clamps • Sandblasters • Pipeline • Holiday Detectors
The business has grown substantially in recent years, Irene says, partly due to the
• Trenchers • Scaffolding • Survey Equipment • Pipe Bevelers wide selection of diamond rings, gold chains, watches and other jewellery the store
offers.
SMALL ENGINE • FITNESS EQUIPMENT • TREADMILLS
“I think the jewellery industry takes a bit of hit when the economy is doing what it’s
SERVICE & REPAIR • ELLIPTICAL TRAINERS SALES & SERVICE 40267628•03/24/09 doing, but we’re doing OK.” Irene says. “But we’re holding our own and doing very
well.”
903 - 2nd Street West Toll-Free 1-877-362-4655
Last year, Impressions Jewellery was the recipient of the Small Business Award
Brooks, AB. or (403) 362-4655 through the Brooks and District Chamber of Commerce.
www.brkrentals.com
“I was absolutely astonished,” Irene says. “It was a very nice recognition.”
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