A total of nearly $16-million is being invested by two levels of government for a new trade education facility at NBCC Saint John, which will have programs in the areas of steel fabrication, automotive service technology, motor vehicle repair, and welding.
The announcement was made at the community college on Grandview Avenue with premier Brian Gallant announcing the provincial contribution of $8.6-million and Saint John-Rothesay MP Wayne Long announcing the feds will be giving $7.2-million.
Acting regional director for the Saint John college Ray Hubble says the programs will work in unison:
“We’re designing it in an integrated fashion so that those programs can work together,” Hubble says. “So the fabricators will produce, the welders will put together and those individuals will also be working in the automotive sector as well.”
He points to the province’s aging workforce and the need to refresh it.
“Something like steel fabrication is new to us this year, because of the fact that industry has told us that demand.”
Mary Bulter is the vice-president of academic development for NBCC. She says trades is a growing sector.
“This new structure is going to allow us to deliver a flexible learning environment for a lot of collaboration,” says Bulter. “So that we have students with enriched learning experience by working across disciplines and together on various projects and hopefully the opportunity to engage in more research as a result as well.”
It’s said that the construction project for the new facility will create nearly $8-million in direct and indirect GDP and provide 125 jobs.
