THUNDER BAY – Construction on Confederation College’s new Technology Education and Collaboration Hub is on track to be completed within the next few months but while the building will be ready to go, efforts to bring in the necessary equipment are just beginning.
The province on Tuesday got the ball rolling, announcing a $2 million contribution through the Northern Ontario Heritage Fund Corporation to help with the expected $5 million cost to have the resources to enhance the space’s potential.
Confederation College president Jim Madder said the new equipment, which includes robotics and a variety of moulding equipment, is essential for preparing students to enter the modern workforce.
“The speed of change with that modern technology is incredibly fast. If you don’t teach students on the most up to date piece of equipment they don’t feel prepared,” Madder said.
“They’re going to walk into an environment that has that equipment and they won’t know where to start. This way they’ll actually be right at the front.”
The TEC Hub, a $19 million project that has received funding from both the provincial and federal governments, is a 45,000 square foot addition connected to the existing McIntyre Building which will focus on advanced manufacturing technology and innovation and incubation.
Upon its scheduled opening in September, the building will be home to the college’s engineering program and relocated aerospace manufacturing, along with skilled trades space with a particular focus on Indigenous students.
“It will allow us to expand our current programming so there are more layers of programming, greater complexity of what we’re doing,” Madder said.
“It will allow them to get hands on, more equipment and greater variety of equipment and actually to do more detailed work. It will attract more students to us because we will actually be a hub for manufacturing and manufacturing innovation for Northwestern Ontario.”
Madder said the college anticipates federal government dollars and support from private enterprise to cover the remaining costs to outfit the space.
The province had previously put forward $9 million toward the capital construction cost.
Thunder Bay-Superior North MPP Michael Gravelle said the TEC Hub is an advancement in training students for manufacturing jobs.
“It’s absolutely invaluable to have high-tech, state-of-the-art equipment in a facility such as the TEC Hub,” Gravelle said.
“This was a $20 million project and the college has worked hard to bring it to fruition. We’ve been very supportive of that in certain terms of advancing opportunities for training students in the manufacturing sector, let alone the other high-level sectors in the economy.”
