By NICK STEWART
While students are away, the summer of 2007 has been one of great activity for Northern College as a number of expansions and welding-related projects for its Temiskaming-region campuses are underway.
Enrolment figures at the Haileybury campus have grown in recent years with 100 students in 2000 to 300 at present providing the impetus to begin a two-pronged expansion.
To enlarge the local teaching space, officials have purchased the adjacent defunct Haileybury Highschool. Engineers and property officials are assessing what remedial work needs to be done to prepare it for the fall of 2008.
The 10,000-square-foot site would allow for the installation of laboratory space for students of the school’s veterinary sciences and natural resources programs. Both programs have contributed greatly to the enrolment increase, and creating additional space will enable the school to boost those numbers further, says Shawn Chorney, associate regional director, South region.
“We’ll be up over 300 again this September, and I think with more space and more innovation like what we’re seeing here, we can easily increase that to 400 and beyond,” Chorney says.
With the school’s June announcement of its new dedication to pursuing applied research, officials are also looking to potentially establish a 30,000-square-foot applied research centre of excellence in Haileybury by as early as 2009.
“It’s not about pure research, which is about peering through microscopes and coming up with something new,” Chorney says. “We want to put to use the practical knowledge that exists and testing and such to come up with solutions for industry and to benefit the community.”
Although the centre is years away from completion, research initiatives such as exploring strategies to rejuvenate the downtown core to finding solutions to industry challenges appear to be at the top of the list.
This new research mandate also dovetails with long-standing plans to establish the Materials Joining Innovation Centre (MaJIC) at the Kirkland Lake campus.
The centre was first conceived in 2002 as an opportunity to leverage the welding experience present at Northern, whichfirst offered a three-year welding technology program in 1970. The proposed $3 million non-profit centre would be independent of but associated with Northern College.
“The services they plan to offer is more about taking applied research possibly done at universities or contract research facilities and trying to move it into something industry can actually use to lower their costs or become more competitive,” Jack Pacey, welding professor at Northern and secretary for MaJIC’s Board of Directors.
Testing servo-hydraulic, metallurgical equipment prototypes, or laser-arc welding hybrids are examples of MaJIC’s potential expertise.
Proposals are out to private and public partners and Pacey expects the centre to be up and running within the year employing as much as 22 people within 10 years. The college announced it will support the centre by providing some equipment and by leasing space.
The Kirkland Lake campus has also recently seen international attention in other welding-related matters, having been designated as the sole North American authorized training body for the International Institute of Welding (IIW).
This designation indicates graduates of Northern’s Welding Engineering Technology program are trained to the IIW’s internationally established and recognized industry standards. This authorizes the school to offer an International Welding Design Certificate program, which Northern is currently developing. Upon completing this program, students will be prepared to write the International Welding Technologists’ Exam, which in turn provides them with an IIW diploma.
As the IIW is recognized in 38 countries worldwide, this success would translate to a wide variety of global opportunities for Northern graduates, says Joshua Fuller, welding program coordinator at Northern.
“We’re still assembling the curriculum, but we’re certain this will help to further increase enrolment numbers for the college,” Fuller says.
The four-semester certificate program expected for October 2008, is being designed as a mix of distance and classroom learning opportunities. As it must meet stringent international standards, its rigorous curriculum will only be available to individuals with an engineering degree or an Ontario College Advanced Diploma in a related field.
