Newfoundland and Labrador faces a shortage of skilled-trades instructors, which could pose big problems with expected construction booms, a public college official said Thursday.

With the announcement of a tentative Hebron oilfield deal Wednesday came promises of thousands of engineering and construction jobs for the province in the next five years but training all those workers will be challenging without enough teachers.

Colin Forward, Dean of Industrial Trades for College of the North Atlantic in Newfoundland and Labrador, told CBC News that the provincial trades college is already facing an instructor shortage and there's no way the school can keep up with salary offers in western Canada. He said he hopes other aspects of the job, such as the east coast lifestyle and extended vacation time will help attract enough instructors to keep the trades college going.

Forward said he hopes retired trades people in the province will consider teaching as an option.

"For a lot of people for instance, who have recently retired from industry, it's an attractive proposition," Forward said. "We find a significant number of people who really want to pass on what they know to the younger generation."

The college is already trying to fill 12 teaching positions and the union that represents the instructors believes the school will have a hard time filling them unless they offer more money.

Carol Furlong, president of the Newfoundland Association of Public Employees, said the province may face a worker shortage because there will be no one to teach the trades.

"If something is not done very soon to increase salaries to a level where people are going to find them acceptable, there'll be nobody left in this province to the do the kind of jobs that are going to be required in the next few years," Furlong said.

The Hebron deals includes $1 million to be split between the college and Memorial University to help boost their ability to train the types of workers that will be needed to do the construction work in the province.

Forward said the college plans to expand its trades programs, meaning it will need even more instructors in the next few years.

A highlight of the Hebron deal is that a GBS, or gravity base structure, will be constructed solely in Newfoundland and Labrador, predicting employment levels greater than those for the Terra Nova or White Rose oilfield projects.

Two other mega-projects proposed for Newfoundland in the near future are a hydromet plant in Long Harbour and a second oil refinery in Placentia Bay.