BY KEITH LACEY
Thanks to a new partnership agreement, mining students in Thunder Bay and Haileybury will soon be able to access education and training opportunities here in Greater Sudbury.
Cambrian College and Northern College, which operates the Haileybury School of Mines and several other campuses across northeast Ontario, are the founding partners in a new initiative to develop a Federated School of Mines for Northern Ontario.
College Boreal and Laurentian University have also signed a Memorandum of Agreement for a new Federated School of Mines.
The provincial government's mining cluster leaders have bandied about discussion on this collaborative approach to training and education across northeastern Ontario for several years.
Discussion among post-secondary management at the various schools over the past couple of years has resulted in this historic agreement, said Cambrian president Sylvia Barnard.
Leaders from all of the post-secondary institutions involved participated in a videoconference and memorandum agreement signing Friday. The videoconference was based out of Cambrian's e-Dome.
This agreement will encourage a co-operative working relationship among all of the schools and the mining sector, said Cambrian president Sylvia Barnard. The agreement will facilitate student access to education in the mining and minerals industry and allow these schools to respond to labour force and training needs.
"One of the key issues...has been accessing training and educational opportunities for employees in the mining industry...and for those young people entering the industry," she said.
Once details are finalized, a student in Haileybury, Timmins or Thunder Bay could access training and curriculum being offered at Laurentian, College Boreal or Cambrian, said Barnard.
The federal and provincial governments have acknowledged a distinct shortage of skilled labour in many industries, including mining, and believe the problem will only get worse, said Barnard.
Co-operative working agreements like this can only help attract young people to the industry and provide the necessary educational and training requirements needed for the mining industry to remain vibrant, said Barnard.
Ultimately, the goal is to attract people to Northern Ontario, strengthen the communities involved through access to education and training, encourage students and employees to remain in this part of the province and assist the mining industry in meeting educational and training needs, said Barnard.
