Vale gives $500,000 to Cambrian College for Aboriginal outreach

Aboriginal outreach programming at Sudbury's Cambrian College is being bolstered by a $500,000 donation from Vale.

The money will be used to fund outreach, recruitment and educational initiatives to help support Aboriginal students as they explore and transition into post-secondary programs.  It will help the college to reach potential students in their home communities while bringing interested participants to Cambrian to gain a taste of college life.

"There are so many opportunities for Aboriginal people to benefit from the jobs waiting to be filled in the growing mining industry across the North," said Sylvia Barnard, president of Cambrian College, in a release.

"Cambrian's outreach programs will create pathways to post-secondary education that will assist Aboriginal learners to meet the mining industry's labour force demands now and in the future."

In November 2009, Vale donated $2 million to Cambrian to fund a mobile trades training trailer.  It was deployed to Kirkland Lake this spring to train apprentices from the Matachewan Aboriginal Access to Training for Mining Jobs Strategy (MAATS).