Cambrian takes trades training on the road

 Cambrian College will be taking its trades apprenticeship training programs on the road throughout northeastern Ontario, starting in the winter of 2010, with three transport truck trailers fully equipped as trades training centres.

Vale Inco is covering the $2 million it costs to convert the trailers into an appropriate space for teaching students to work in the trades.

Among the programs being offered are welding, electrical, heavy equipment, truck and coach, machining and gas fitting. The trailers will also be used to provide high school students in far-flung northern communities with a taste of trades training.

“In the future, based on the demographics, we will be looking for people in the trades,” said John Pollesel, Vale Inco's vice-president of production services and support and general manager of Ontario operations.

“This is an opportunity for those who can't make it to Sudbury or other centres to do the training in their own communities.”

Peter Pagnutti, a heavy equipment instructor at Cambrian College, said he'll be teaching the first course in the trailers in Kirkland Lake this winter. He'll be in the community for six weeks. The course normally takes eight weeks to teach, so students will spend longer in the classroom each day.

“I'm looking forward to it. It should be different,” he said.

“It is very hard and very intimidating for a lot of people who come to cities like Sudbury and walk into a building like Cambrian. I had one apprentice where it took him three times to get into the college system before he was actively going. He was just so intimidated.”

Cambrian president Sylvia Barnard said the programs offered in the trailers, just like those offered on campus, are funded by the Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities.

The college has put in a funding application to the Northern Ontario Heritage Fund Corporation (NOHFC) to cover the cost of moving and operating the trailers, she said.

Cambrian will also charge companies who want to provide further training for their employees for the use of the service.

Barnard said the trailers have about 1,800 square feet of space for students to use as classroom and lab areas, with stations for teaching electrical, welding, mechanical and other skills.

The main trailer has retractable sides, which roll out and expand, and a hinged, collapsible floor, which opens to reveal a space which can accommodate 12 students.

It took about eight months to retrofit the trailers, she said.

“They're fully equipped so that they can operate, providing all of the gas, electrical and compressed air for all of the training,” Barnard said.

“In addition to that, they have high-tech equipment for teaching, such as the projector and laptop. It's got a satellite dish for connectivity to the Internet, so they'll be able to connect back to the eDome (on Cambrian's Sudbury campus) for some of their training. It's totally self-contained, with its own heating system, and generates all of its own electricity.”

Barnard said Cambrian is the first college in Ontario to have a mobile classroom, although she knows of some colleges in western Canada which have had similar programs.

View an extended tour inside the mobile trailer, which shows the set-up and equipment.

For more information, go to www.cambriancollege.ca.