Dean of School of Trades and Technology Lindsay Langhill.
(DANA REYNOLDS / iNFOnews.ca)
July 07, 2015 - 12:19 PM
KAMLOOPS – Thompson Rivers University is preparing to expand its trades program to include instrumentation engineering, thanks in part to $2 million in federal funding.
MP Cathy McLeod was on hand today, July 7, to announce the $2 million in federal funding. McLeod said she hopes this latest offering will continue the university’s goal of offering 'very diverse opportunities for students' and create 'concrete investments in skills training.'
The new two-year program, only the third in the province, is an instrumentation engineering program to support trades workers in the fields of oil and gas, pulp and paper production and processing facilities.
Twenty four students will be accepted the first year of the program, with the intentions to grow enrollment in the following years. The graduates of this program will be recognized by the Interprovincial Standards Red Seal program, meaning their skills will be transferrable across the country.
McLeod joked she must be speaking to a room full of tradespeople when a comment about the bulk of the funding going towards equipment costs drew cheers and claps from the students attending the announcement.
By 2022 the province expects to have one million job openings with 44 per cent of these being in skilled trades and technical occupations.
To contact a reporter for this story, email Dana Reynolds at dreynolds@infonews.ca or call 250-819-6089. To contact an editor, email mjones@infonews.ca or call 250-718-2724.
News from © iNFOnews, 2015