By IAN ROSS
Walk into a Sault Ste. Marie bank or down the corridors of the Ontario Lottery Corporation, Algoma Steel, Tenaris Tubes and you’ll likely find Algoma University College Business Administration graduates.
It’s like an alumni reunion, says Professor Pelham Matthews, chairman of AUC’s Business Department.
“Go around town and our alumni are hiring our students.”
A few from the small Sault Ste. Marie campus of 1,100 students have even made their mark in the halls of government at FedNor, Department of National Defence and the various Heritage Canada programs.
But before Matthews arrived in 1993, few AUC business students were getting those precious first job placements.
Matthews, who had taught at top-ranked undergrad institutions such as University of New Brunswick and St. Francis Xavier, was hired to help revamp and revive the Business Administration program.
They upgraded it to a case-based program teaching students to problem solve, be independent, creative and work on their team-building skills to be effective managers and teachers.
They also began sending students to the Ontario Job Fair in Toronto every spring from 1997 to 2002.
“In that five year period, two of our students earned the top job,” says Matthews. One landed a prized position with Dupont in Toronto and another at IBM in Montreal.
“We tell the students they are our product and go out and represent us well,” says Matthews. “We’re not beating our chest at how great we are. We let the students who graduate demonstrate how good the program is.”
Matthews view the program as a “community assistance vehicle.”
AUC students have worked on business plans for the Algoma Central Railway, Batchawana First Nation, Sault Ste. Marie Chamber of Commerce along with hospital branding projects and doctor recruitment programs.
They also assist non-profits, small and medium-sized businesses with business plans, feasibility studies and marketing plans.
“Students get real world project along with text-based cases to solve,” says Matthews.
With 300 full-time business students, Matthews says AUC can comfortably double that enrolment through satellite arrangements with other colleges. The university has eventual plans to boost that number to 1,000.
Of their student intake, half are locals with the rest evenly split between southern Ontario and international students.
Many are well-rounded students with double majors in accounting, marketing, information technology, economics and public policy and administration.
Above all, Matthews says they’re taught to be thinkers and good writers.
Among Algoma’s best recruiting tool is its small campus and intimate classroom settings.
Instead of getting lost in a lecture hall at the University of Toronto or Western, the largest first-year AUC class is 70 students at the most.
Many grads go off to get their MBA’s, but those that enter the workforce usually find jobs with six months. “Most have one or two jobs lined up before they graduate.”
Entry level salaries for AUC undergrads range from $35,000 in a bank management training programs to more higher end $50,000 position.
“Our goal is not to be a research program,” says Matthews. “We want to be a stellar undergrad business program.
“Research is nice, but at this stage of Northern Ontario’s development having top-notch researchers researching small orphan areas of business is not going to help the region. Strong graduates who are actually going to go out and build Northern Ontario, means a strong undergrad business program.”
On the web: www.auc.ca
