Students at the Manitoba Institute of Trades and Technology (MITT) can look forward to a major campus expansion that will include a new welding shop thanks to a $4-million investment by the Manitoba government. This announcement was made by Education and Advanced Learning Minister Peter Bjornson.
“Manitoba’s economy is growing and this requires an education and training strategy that ensures our future workforce has the training opportunities that will continue to build our great province,” said Minister Bjornson. “This expansion will double the institute’s capacity to train apprenticeship-track industrial welders and give young people more opportunities to learn and develop the skills they need to get the good jobs that are available right here in Manitoba.”
Last year the Manitoba government announced a new mandate for MITT for it to grow and better meet the needs of students and industry including new high school programs, trades programming and new partnerships.
“This investment is a significant step towards supporting our new mandate,” said Paul Holden, president and CEO, MITT. “An expansion to our campus will give us greater capacity to work with our secondary, post-secondary and industry partners to provide state-of-the-art skilled trades training to career-focused students.”
The Manitoba government has launched a comprehensive skills strategy to give students access to state-of-the-art programming and equipment that will create a pathway to post-secondary education and good jobs, the minister said.
This includes:
- a $30-million Skill Build Shops fund to build and expand trades and skills shops in high schools;
- a $2-million career development fund to ensure students leave high school with a good idea of where they want to go and how to get there, whether it is through a university, college, work placement or on-the-job training and apprenticeship; and
- a $1.5-million skills strategy build equipment enhancement fund to upgrade classrooms to an apprenticeship-accredited level and bring welding, electrical, carpentry and culinary arts equipment into schools.
The minister noted MITT is a key partner in the Manitoba government’s plan to add 75,000 skilled workers to the labour force by 2020.
