The Vermilion campus of Lakeland College will see updates coming to its Trade Centre exterior with funding from the Alberta Government.
The Capital Maintenance and Renewal budget will give $6 million to complete repairs on the facility, that has experienced water damage on the roof and side exteriors over the years. President and CEO of Lakeland College Alice Wainwright-Stewart says that through the course of the year more than thousands of people take trades training at the centre.
“So when you think of that many individuals this facility is really not only important for us and our students, but it’s really important for the high school and industry that is able to use this facility to ensure that there is constant reeducation when the trades need to be upgraded.”
Lakeland offers nine apprenticeship, 2 pre employment programs and continuing education classes that all use the facility.
The Alberta government’s 2018 budget has increased its advanced education spending from $5.5 billion to $6.1 billion, with a 2 per cent increase in the Campus Alberta Grants that provides funding to all colleges and universities in the province.
Minister of Advanced Education Marlin Schmidt says that they’re trying to make sure that this economic recovery is built to last and part of that is training students for the jobs of the future.
“We want to make sure that students have the skills that they need to be successful in the workplace when they graduate and in order to do that they need modern state of the art facilities to learn and train in.”
The repairs to the Trades Centre are expected to take up to two years to complete.