Oh, man, this is my bread and butter.
There are two main paths you can take to become an operator. I call one the school of hard knocks. That's when you work with a first nation or municipality for a year. After that year, I, as a manager, can get you enrolled in courses and we can start that path to write your certification exam.
It's important to note that there are four different disciplines. They are water treatment, water distribution, wastewater collection and wastewater treatment.
A successful candidate—a real go-getter—can be a certified operator through the path of hard knocks in about a year and a half. I've never seen it done; it's closer to two.
There's another path you can take. I'm in Alberta, so I'm going to use NAIT and SAIT as examples.
You go to school for a year. They put you in a placement. You come out, you write your exam and then you get certified. It still takes about a year. This is difficult for remote communities.
Even option one is difficult for remote communities. Many of the operators that I have brought up from Tsuut'ina do better in a hands-on situation. I even have my own personal belief that the school of hard knocks builds a better operator for a small system. It's constant support, constant training and constant mentorship.
As a manager, I spend two-thirds of my time in the field teaching my young operators.