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Ramping up apprenticeship readiness

$250,000-plus announced for Pre-Apprenticeship Program

Sometimes a college student needs an extra jolt of training to go from the classroom to the workforce. That is the impetus behind Ontario’s $14 million Pre-Apprenticeship Training program, which boosts trade-specific knowledge, job skills and employment experience for college students.

Conestoga College’s Guelph trades programs will get a $250,416 share of those funds this year to enhance student readiness for full-fledged apprenticeships in technician professions like heavy equipment, truck and coach, and agriculture.

Guelph MPP and President of the Treasury Board Liz Sandals made the announcement Friday at the Conestoga’s Speedvale Avenue campus. Conestoga president John Tibbits was one hand, as were dozens of college students. There was a large transport truck and some heavy equipment in the machine shop, a lot of engine blocks being wrenched on.

Sandals said the Pre-Apprenticeship Training program helps prepare people for specific jobs, especially jobs that are in demand in the skilled trades. The funding goes to pay for the educational resources a student needs to be ready to land an apprenticeship.

Speaking on behalf of Deb Matthews, Minister of Advanced Education and Skills Development, Sandals said 24 Conestoga students in Guelph will benefit from the funding, which starts rolling out on Monday.

“A lot of young folks need some more training before they go out and find full-time employment,” she said. “This helps them find ways into the jobs that are out there.”

Tibbits said there is a “huge number of jobs out there and a lot of opportunity” in the skilled trades.

“This program provides an opportunity to get into apprenticeships and into those trades,” he said, adding that the additional training will also act as incentive to seek out those opportunities.

In recent years, he added, technology has changed at a “fierce, exponential rate,” and preparing for the trades takes a lot more skill and knowledge than it used to.

The college will work hard to ensure students are successful in their career path, he indicated.

Konrad Hillenaar was part of the Pre-Apprenticeship Program at Conestoga in 2015. He told the gathering at the press conference that it provided him a kind of bridge from his college program to an apprenticeship as a truck and coach technician, allowing him to improve his math and computer skills. It opened doors for him, he said.


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Rob O'Flanagan

About the Author: Rob O'Flanagan

Rob O’Flanagan has been a newspaper reporter, photojournalist and columnist for over twenty years. He has won numerous Ontario Newspaper Awards and a National Newspaper Award.
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