THUNDER BAY — Aviation students in Thunder Bay could soon be learning from Toronto-based instructors, and vice-versa.
Confederation College has partnered with Seneca Polytechnic in Toronto to address critical skill gaps in the provincial aviation and veterinary industries.
The partnership will allow the institutions to share faculty expertise, facilities and resources to maximize program delivery and expand educational access for students in Ontario.
"Given the current environment of colleges right now and the issue around funding," said college president Michelle Salo, "it's really important that we find some synergies and partnerships between different colleges to see how we can support these programs that are (in) high demand but also very high cost and very burdensome for the college in terms of the financial impact of programs."
The collaboration will initially focus on aviation programming, specifically teaching commercial pilots.
The college has reduced the number of students they will accept into aviation management, the program that trains pilots, largely due to a lack of qualified instructors.
Salo explained that the institutions are trying to work together to find a way to continue offering the aviation program and make it available in small northern communities that really need pilots who are important to the sector.
Still in early discussions, the institutions have made combined teams with expertise in flight management.
Salo said the initial concept is that students would likely participate locally and in Peterborough, where they have their flight program.
"We have way more applicants than we could ever accommodate in our program. We're limited by airspace and a number of other things that only allow us to take so many students in," said Salo.
"So it's important that we're able to continue the program, but (we) need to come up with again more innovative ways (of supporting it) and working with the ministry to see if there's additional funding to help support the program."
Salo saìd current grant funding isn't sufficient to support it.
"We know there's a huge demand for pilots, not just in Northwestern Ontario, but all across Canada," said Salo.
"Our pilots are in high demand and there's pathways. Everybody who graduates from here gets a job basically, so it's a perfect pathway for students into employment, but again, it's a high-cost program, which creates a challenge for us to be able to offer it."
As well as improving aviation programming, Seneca also approached the college on how it could partner to explore the potential for a veterinary technician program model in Northwestern Ontario.
Salo added that Seneca has a very active veterinarian technician program, which is extremely successful in their area.
"We know Lakehead University is going to be starting up their veterinarian program and for every vet, you need two vet technicians," said Salo.
"So, we thought this is a perfect opportunity to kind of meet another demand that's going to be in the community."
Salo explained the program would also provide necessary support for veterinarian clinics in Thunder Bay and all across Northwestern Ontario.
"We know that there's a shortage of technicians and veterinarians across the Northwestern Ontario region. This would help to support people coming up through the program and into those professions," said Salo.
While still in the preliminary stages of ensuring it is financially viable, meets the community demand and has enough students to enroll, she said it would be an opportunity to share in curriculum and even delivery methods.
"We could have students here who are also being taught by maybe a professor at Seneca," she said.
Salo added they are excited to have a great partner in Seneca to work with and are very excited for this opportunity.
