(File photo courtesy marykbaird via morgueFile)(File photo courtesy marykbaird via morgueFile)
Midwestern

Saugeen Shores Home To New Fanshawe Program

Fanshawe College is looking to bring a program to Saugeen Shores to help train skilled labour for the town's building boom.

Academic Service Consultant Heather MacKenzie-Card says they are finalizing a carpentry and renovation techniques certificate program, which would run out of Saugeen District Secondary School in Port Elgin, perhaps as early as this fall.

She says Saugeen Shores is growing rapidly and developers are reporting a shortage of tradespeople, so this program would aim to help local people develop skills that are required to gain employment.

"Saugeen Shores is one of the fastest growing communities in Bruce County, and we know that there's building happening, so we know employers are saying they need people with these skill-sets," says MacKenzie-Card. "This program will enable many people who maybe don't have those skill-sets to develop them and be employed locally."

She says the program is still being finalized internally, so it remains unclear whether the carpentry program will be offered this fall, or in 2019.

"With post-secondary programming, you need time for recruitment to get students in seats, so the sooner we get things finalized, then the sooner we can start marketing," says MacKenzie-Card. "So that's really the big piece of whether it will be 2018 or 2019."

MacKenzie-Card says the program is proposed to run three evenings per week for two 15-week terms and would be open to approximately 10 to 12 students per class.

She adds the program would cost standard tuition fees - around $1,900 per term, excluding books and tools, but eligible students would be able to apply for an Ontario Student Assistance Program loan.

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