$3M from province to help market northern colleges

The Northern Ontario Heritage Fund Corporation has invested $3 million in Study North, a three-year marketing and recruitment initiative that will help Northern Ontario's six community colleges market the north as a place to study and work.

The six colleges in the north (Confederation, Sault, Cambrian, Boréal, Northern and Canadore) will work with industry partners and other community organizations to identify labour shortages, skills needs and employment opportunities in an effort to attract more students to their respective campuses.

“Our government recognizes that Northern Ontario’s colleges are essential to preparing northerners for the workforce and to responding to forecasted labour shortages in a number of sectors including the mining industry,” said NOHFC chair and Minister of Northern Development and Mines Michael Gravelle, in a press release.

“I am very pleased that the NOHFC could invest in this important initiative and I commend all the project partners for their commitment to recruiting students to the north.”

“Collège Boréal is pleased to work in collaboration with its colleagues so that together, we can showcase our quality education and the variety of programs we offer in Northern Ontario,” said Collège Boréal president Pierre Riopel, in a press release.

“We are proud of the fact that we are present in a number of communities throughout the north where we offer French speaking citizens the possibility of studying in French so that we can increase the bilingual labour force in our territory.”

“Cambrian College is very pleased to be involved with such a collaborative effort to better serve the needs of our learners and support the socio-economic prosperity of Northern Ontario,” said Cambrian College president Bill Best.

“This partnership with our northern sister colleges and industry will attract students from across the province and raise awareness of the talent and opportunity that exists here. On behalf of the college, I’d like to thank the government of Ontario for its commitment to the north though this three-year investment.”