Ontario Construction News staff writer
Collège Boréal has launched a two-year Construction Engineering Technician — Civil and Mining diploma program at its Timmins campus aimed at meeting growing demand for workers in mining-related fields in northern Ontario.
Officials with Collège Boréal, a public college of applied arts and technology established in Sudbury in 1995, said the program will accept a maximum of 20 students per cohort, and ten have already registered to begin with the first cohort in September.
The program will prepare students for positions as construction engineering technicians who complete tasks such as drafting, surveying, and material testing on site using specialized software.
It will train students for entry level positions and to manage engineering projects involving operation and extraction of mineralized rock in mines, development of underground or open-pit mines, and the design and construction of public works infrastructure.
The program will be offered in French, and graduates will be prepared to work in both French- and English-speaking mining and civil engineering workplaces.
College president Daniel Giroux at a launch event Friday said the goal is to give local students a direct pathway to careers in mining, civil construction, and surveying without having to leave northeastern Ontario.
“For us it’s to keep the youth in the community, but also to attract people from all over the world, and in Canada and Ontario, to the Timmins community.”
Melanie Dufresne, director of Collège Boréal’s Timmins campus, said the program also aims to fill a gap in the supply of mining technicians.
“So, with the development that we’ve been seeing … in the region — the mining development, infrastructure development — it’s a program that we know is in need and will be a need for future years to make sure that we have a qualified workforce,” Dufresne said.
More than 3,700 new jobs in mining fields will need to be filled in the Timmins region by 2029, according to the Timmins Economic Development Corporation.