By Chris Brown

Engaging employers

College to give students more hands-on learning

Sep 24, 2021 | 4:32 PM

MEDICINE HAT, AB – Medicine Hat College is reaching out to local employers to help build a workforce that meets the needs of the region.

The provincial government is helping the college expand its apprenticeship program and take it outside the traditional trades like carpentry, electrical and plumbing.

Chad Flinn, the college’s dean of trades and technology says after consultations earlier this year they built the framework for three new apprenticeship programs – data analytics, web development and multimedia management, and energy auditing.

Flinn says more hands-on learning is a huge step forward for students and industry.

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“So our students are actually going to go out and work in industry. So that will give them a lot of hands-on experience,” he says. “It will also help industry because they can start vetting their employees while they’re still going to school. They can help actually build the curriculum, they can tell us exactly what they need in industry so we can actually start building an education system together.”

Now the college is hosting engagement sessions with industry to fine-tune the program. Three sessions will take place next week, two in Medicine Hat and one in Brooks. More sessions are scheduled for the following week.

“At the end of the day, the program says that we have to have 51 per cent of the time that our students are in this course have to be in industry. So we need industry engagement,” says Flinn.