AFTER THE FINAL 2016-17 SCENE BEEN PUBLISHED …
St. Clair’s newest campus is a hit.
In January of this year, the college assumed the management of the former, private-sector-operated Valiant Training Centre on St. Etienne Boulevard in Windsor.
That facility – founded a decade ago by the Valiant TMS Group of Companies to educate its employees and prospective employees in the fields of tooling, machining and precision metal-cutting – was renamed the St. Clair College Skilled Trades Regional Training Centre.
In early-January, St. Clair assumed the educational supervision of the couple dozen Valiant enrollees who were already in place at the site.
The college’s administration initially thought the marketing, recruitment and enrolment at the Centre might be a static for several months …
… But that has not been the case, Academic Vice-President Waseem Habash informed St. Clair’s Board of Governors (BofG) during its June 27th meeting.
Operating as a Contract Training facility (industries and trade associations purchasing the college’s services to train employees and prospective employees), the Centre has been welcoming wave after wave of new students since it assumed management of the building.
In just its first few months of operating the Centre, St. Clair welcomed a couple dozen new enrollees, graduated its first class of curriculum-completers, and prepared to welcome another 30 new students between July and September.
In addition to the continuing involvement of Valiant, a couple of its subsidiary companies, and the Canadian Tooling and Machining Association, St. Clair’s management has seen the Centre’s “customer base” expand in the form of 14 manufacturing firms, and partnerships with the Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters organization and the Canadian Association of Mold Makers.
It also obtained special funding for the July class-intake from the Ministry of Economic Development.
The static, “break-even” projection for the first year of operation was proven pessimistic within three months. Between January and the end of March, the new Centre provided an operational profit to the college of just under $25,000.
The Valiant format – adopted by St. Clair – features “work-integrated learning” opportunities. Almost all of the students at the Centre are simultaneously working at paid (and occupationally related) jobs during their educations and/or they have guaranteed jobs awaiting them with industrial sponsors upon their graduations.
St. Clair hopes to expand that format to many other programs at its other campuses, particularly in the tech-and-trades fields.
