Aviation, forestry focus of alliance.

"Education that works" is the motto at Confederation College, an institution that prides itself on providing integrated education to its students to create industry-ready graduates. However, staff at the Thunder Bay campus hope its forestry and aviation programs will be even more enhanced with the introduction this fall of its Alliance of Excellence.

Ian McCormack, the college's vice-president of community development and innovation, describes the Alliance of Excellence as "a strategic partnership" between Confederation College, the province (and hopefully other levels of government), business and industry. The alliance is the theme of the college's $15-million fundraising campaign, which has already received $4 million from the province's SuperBuild fund; Confederation College has also raised $500,000 to jumpstart the campaign.

The Alliance of Excellence is the result of studies by the college, Development Thunder Bay and the aviation and forestry sectors.

"We recognized areas of training that needed to be fleshed out," explains Nancy Creighton, the manager of Development Thunder Bay. "The alliance takes it to the next level. We're supportive of the program and recognize its value to the community and the two industry sectors."

However, she notes that the city has not been asked for a financial contribution at this juncture.

The proposed Aviation Centre of Excellence is slated to get the bulk of funding, a full two-thirds of it. With the $10 million Confederation hopes to raise for the Aviation :Centre of Excellence, the college plans to build a 58,000-square-foot facility at Thunder Bay International Airport, which will eventually be able to house 350 fulltime students.

The new facility, whose design has been created with Confederation's partners in the aviation industry, will permit the consolidation of all three of the college's aviation programs - flight management, aircraft maintenance, and aviation manufacturing engineering technology - under one roof. Currently, the technology program is offered at the Thunder Bay campus, while the other two are offered at the airport. Once built, the Aviation Centre of Excellence will provide students with new state-of-the-art technology, both on the ground and on board the college's aircraft.

Unlike the Aviation Centre of Excellence, Confederation College's Forestry Centre of Excellence fundraising efforts are "not about bricks and mortar," McCormack notes. Instead, it is about enhancing its forestry programs, one of which it has taken over from Lakehead University this fall, in order to meet the need for more technologically skilled workers in the forestry harvesting and manufacturing industries.

Initially, the Forestry-Centre of Excellence will offer four courses, including a two-year diploma course in mechanical engineering technology. The co-operative education program began in September with 26 apprentice placements.

This new program is an "industry-driven initiative," McCormack points out." It builds on our decades of success in the traditional forestry trades like mechanical instrumentation, and will meet the need for more multi-skilled workers."

Other new courses include a one-year forestry operators certificate program and a two-year diploma program in forest technology. The latter program was originally started by Lakehead University back in the 1940s, but the university discontinued it last year. "The industry asked us to pick it up, and we have," says McCormack. In the fall of 2003 the forestry centre will add a pulp and paper technology course. Again, this two-year program is to "meet the needs of the industry," McCormack explains.

Aviation is also critical to the North, adds McCormack, who notes that the industry is "a significant part of the transportationinfrastructure," as it helps to meet the challenges of long distances between communities in the North, including-upwards of 40 Aboriginal towns and villages that are only accessible by air, and the large trading centres in other parts of the province add-the U.S. Midwest.

Canada's aerospace industry is the fourth largest in the world. In Ontario alone, it employs 28,000 people and generates $6 billion in sales annually. Bombardier's Downsview, Ontario, Plant alone employs 100 Confederation College technology graduates.