Alumni News and Views - Conestoga College

More documents

Recommendations

Info

The Women in Skilled Trades (WIST) pre-apprenticeship program of Conestoga has been named one of five winners of an academic excellence and innovation award from the Yves Landry Foundation. The Conestoga award is $5,000 and was presented in Toronto on October 20 at the Foundation's sixth annual STARS Technological Education Awards Gala, held at the Westin Harbour Castle. The WIST program, which has operated at Conestoga since 2001 at the Doon (Kitchener) and Guelph campuses, has been named by the Foundation as an outstanding technical co-operative education program. Funded by the Ontario Women's Directorate through the Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities, WIST aims to address the shortage of skilled workers in the manufacturing and construction sectors by offering opportunities to unemployed or underemployed low-income women, who are unable to pursue options in the skilled trades because of a lack of math skills, computer literacy and hands-on experience involving technical equipment. WIST initiatives are consistent with the higher profile being assigned apprenticeship education by the provincial government in recognition of the value skilled apprentices bring 20 Connections - winter 2006 Campus Update Conestoga is Growing Again - continued the reduction of unemployment, we must respond by creating more opportunities and more innovative solutions to train our apprentices. If Conestoga is unable to do so, Ontario funding will be directed to other institutions that can, we will continue to face youth unemployment. If we cannot meet this challenge, our young people who are interested in skilled trades will leave the community to find the opportunities they are seeking elsewhere. Conestoga Program Earns Prestigious Yves Landry Award by John Sawicki* As 80% of our graduates tend to stay here in the Waterloo Region, we feel strongly that we must offer our students the best possible education and training to encourage them to stay in our region, and to keep our local industry partners supplied with top-notch skilledtrades workers. With enough support from community leaders, alumni and friends, we hope to move into University Heights in time to offer programming by September 2006. Linda Hasenfratz, CEO, Linamar Corporation & President John Tibbits to the workplace and the economy as a whole. Conestoga's WIST participation has been in the areas of carpentry, millwright, and precision machining and tooling. Almost one-fifth of the WIST participants in Ontario have been at Conestoga, more than 50 women have successfully completed studies and workplace-related practical experience, and of these, almost all are employed in industry, many as registered apprentices. Success has been due to the cooperation of community organizations, employers, unions, government agencies and the College. Local assistance agencies have promoted the program in Waterloo Region and in Wellington and Oxford counties. District school boards have also assisted. Individual companies and sectoral associations If you would like to support this exciting new initiative in skilled trades, please use the pledge form on the inside cover of the magazine and mark Skilled Trades Expansion under “other”. Special note – every gift up to $500,000 will be matched 2 -1 by one of our donors. We will update you on this donor and others in our next issue of Connections. Every dollar counts! For more information, please contact Ingrid Town at 519-748- 5220 ext. 3490 or itown@conestogac.on.ca. have been active in seeking and offering work placements to students and graduates, as have a number of union locals. WIST continued this fall, with the start of another carpentry program at Conestoga's campus in Guelph. The other four organizations to be recognized at the October 20 STARS gala are the University of Waterloo, the University of Windsor, Northern College of Applied Arts and Technology, and the York Region District School Board. The Yves Landry Foundation, established in 1998, is based on the vision, principles and hopes of the late Yves Landry, Chairman, President and CEO of Chrysler Canada Ltd. from 1990 to 1998. The Foundation provides the opportunity for business, education and government to collectively be part of the solution to advance technological education and skills training in order to resolve the skilled labour shortages facing Canadian industries. The STARS event provides the platform both to honour those working in alignment with the Foundation's mission and to promote awareness of excellence in the effort to reduce current and future skills shortages. The website for the Foundation is: www.ylandryfund.org.
After only one year of in-school academics, Sarah Wallace and Steven Richmond are working as General Machinist Co-op Apprentices for a dynamic international company, Engle Canada Inc. When we met them in the bright, clean and friendly atmosphere of Engel’s machine shop, they were concentrating on drilling and tapping using lathes and mills. John Beliski, the Machinist/ Apprentice Coordinator, acknowledges that even though they only started working early in September 2005, they are already part of the team; they are being trained and are meeting the challenge. Both Sarah and Steven have agrarian roots which exposed them to working with hand tools and automated equipment from a young age. Sarah was mentored in high school by the shop teacher and became a peer-helper, which makes her feel comfortable around machines. She finds the work interesting and new every day. Steven also realizes how lucky he is to have found an apprentice position. He feels it has a lot of advantages because he likes to work with his hands and is not hesitant to try anything new. Through the School of Trades and Apprenticeship, Conestoga is entering the second phase of a pilot program which provides the upfront academic skills for apprenticeships before students first reach the shop floor. The unique Mechanical Technician Co-op Diploma Apprenticeship is in its second year, with a full enrolment of 82 students. Students are available in options of Tool and Die/Tool Maker, General Machinist, Machine Tool Builder Integrator and Industrial Mechanic Millwright. Funded under a Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities initiative, this is one of a select number of programs intended to produce graduates with both certified apprenticeship skills and full college technical diplomas. Already sponsored by a consortium of local Campus Update A New Direction in Apprenticeship Trades by Voilet Boutilier Sarah Wallace, John Beliski, Steven Richmond industries, students are seeking employment in Ontario for their work term. The program includes 1.5 years of study with two periods at Conestoga and a fully-paid 52week co-op work term in industry. There are also many benefits to the employer community. Employers may be eligible for the up to $5,000 Apprenticeship Training Tax Credit, per student apprentice in the 52week work term. Employers have the opportunity to evaluate co-op students as potential full-time employees, thus reducing recruitment costs. Employing co-op students may be a means to satisfy cyclical, short-term or project needs. Employers can also establish and enhance their profile on-campus among students and faculty For information on how to hire a co-op student from this program contact Sonja Roy-Smith in the Co-op office at sroy-smith@conestogac.on.ca Juergen Winkler, Manufacturing Manager at Engel said, “We need experienced journeymen, and they are not just walking through our door. We originally interviewed for the apprentice positions from outside the college and the respondents seemed to have the view this was ‘for fun.’ It was clear after these interviews that the better choice was to work with Conestoga. The students coming from the apprenticeship training program possess a huge difference in skills.” Engel interviewed five candidates from the Mechanical Technician Co-op Diploma Apprenticeship program and “all were great.” “Having the students first go to school for one year is the way to go,” Winkler said. John Beliski, the Machinist/ Apprentice Coordinator, said he was “Really impressed from the first day. The co-op students did not come in green. They made my job easier. Sarah was using a CNC machine on day one.” John also said he was impressed with their strong work ethic. The plan is for both Sarah and Steven to eventually be responsible for all service and re-work modifications which are frequently a rush. The company plans to purchase new machines and rotate the co-op apprentices though assembly and CNC programming to see the whole spectrum of manufacturing at Engel in order to get a feeling for future opportunities. Company Profile Engel is a worldwide company, with its North American headquarters in Guelph. The Guelph location involves production of injection molding machines with clamping forces up to 500 US tons, and automation equipment for the plastics industry. This location employs 365 people. For more than half a century Engel has been meeting every molding challenge with expertise in injection machine molding technology, in machine control, and in automation and in process technology. Add to this their fully integrated robots and automation systems, along with applications technology - such as long glass fibre, multi-color molding, expansion injection molding or watermelt - to name a few - and Engel's status of single source supplier and integrator for the complete injection molding industry can be easily understood. Connections - winter 2006 21
Page 1 and 2: Connections Connections CONESTOGA C
Page 3 and 4: Table of Contents Editor’s Notebo
Page 5 and 6: Letters to the Editor George Vezza,
Page 7 and 8: Marketing and also won a Waterloo-
Page 9 and 10: In 1980, Steve Tangney completed hi
Page 11 and 12: Ambulance and Emergency Care 1991 M
Page 13 and 14: 1999. I now have a bachelor's degre
Page 15 and 16: Lost Sheep We’ve Lost Connection
Page 17 and 18: Lost Sheep Membership Has Its Benef
Page 19 and 20: PAC’s Profile Steel Teaching Aid
Page 21: Start young! So how do we let our y
Page 25 and 26: Leanne Holland Brown is a name stud
Page 27 and 28: manufacturer of space hardware subs
Page 29 and 30: Upcoming Reunions Business Administ
Page 31 and 32: Conestoga Needs Long- Term, Stable
Page 33 and 34: Tracy and Sean Jasmins, fellow grad
Page 35 and 36: Shawn Casemore, 1995 Grad Since cho
Page 37 and 38: Alumni News and Views l-r: Monica H
Page 39 and 40: How can I invest in the Annual Fund

Alumni News and Views - Conestoga College

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?