{"id":13123,"date":"2017-01-04T09:00:46","date_gmt":"2017-01-04T17:00:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/?p=13123"},"modified":"2017-01-03T10:29:10","modified_gmt":"2017-01-03T18:29:10","slug":"camosun-college-surpasses-funding-goal-for-trades-buildings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/2017\/01\/04\/camosun-college-surpasses-funding-goal-for-trades-buildings\/","title":{"rendered":"Camosun College surpasses funding goal for trades buildings"},"content":{"rendered":"

Camosun College has reached their $6.5-million funding goal for new buildings and renovations at the Interurban campus. The college\u2014which raised the funds through its TRADEmark of Excellence campaign\u2014exceeded its goal by $1.5 million.<\/p>\n

A large chunk of the fundraising went toward Interurban\u2019s new Centre for Trades Education and Innovation. TRADEmark of Excellence campaign director Angus Matthews says students should take a look at the new building.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is a truly dramatic building that really upgrades the appearance of what trades education looks like,\u201d says Matthews. \u201cI think there\u2019ll be a lot of pride in that for students. I think it\u2019ll attract a lot more students saying, \u2018Hey, the trades are a lot more sophisticated than we realized; these are great jobs.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/a>
Camosun TRADEmark of Excellence campaign director Angus Matthews (photo by Jill Westby\/Nexus<\/em>).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Some of the college\u2019s trades programs were previously crammed into Interurban\u2019s Jack White and John Drysdale buildings, as well as two \u201ctemporary\u201d buildings that are roughly 20 years old. Camosun College Student Society (CCSS) external executive Rachael Grant says there is a significant lack of college funding from the provincial government.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is important to remember that institutional funding from our provincial government is at an all-time low,\u201d says Grant. \u201cThat is a responsibility from our government that has been lacking for some time. It\u2019s important that students have resources.\u201d<\/p>\n

Matthews says the reality of funding is that while the government has supported Camosun in significant ways\u2014the most recent being a contribution of $29.2 million to the construction of the new building\u2014the TRADEmark campaign has had to appeal to donors.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs I\u2019m saying to private donors all the time,\u201d says Matthews, \u201cdo you want Camosun to be as good as the government can make it, or as good as the community can make it? We really need the community to help with the extras, and that\u2019s what this campaign\u2019s done.\u201d<\/p>\n

Students and student education have been a large focus of the campaign; for example, when Babcock Canada president Mark Dixon presented Babcock\u2019s $800,000 donation to the college, he brought 14 Camosun graduates with him (Babcock Canada manages maintenance on navy submarines). Camosun director of applied research and innovation Tim Walzak says the Babcock interaction lab\u2014to be housed in the Jack White Building\u2014will be designed to consolidate equipment and create a space for collaboration.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s part of our vision here,\u201d says Walzak. \u201cMost of our grads are going to work in smaller companies or in different kinds of institutions or local community partners, and in those cases, they\u2019re working as part of an interdisciplinary team. But we don\u2019t teach them as part of an interdisciplinary team. This is an opportunity to bring those disciplines together while the students are being educated in order to give them a better skill set, to be more employable when they\u2019re finished at Camosun.\u201d<\/p>\n

Of the $6.5 million raised, a little under $1.5 million has been invested in the college\u2019s Coastal Skills Initiative and West Coast Women in Trades program; Matthews says that only nine percent of trades students are female, compared to almost 50 percent females in other programs.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are a lot of women with an interest in trades,\u201d says Matthews. \u201cHad there been a program with a mentor, a network of other women in trades, scholarship support, maybe bursary support for tools or boots, better daycare, I bet a lot more women would have a real interest in trades. With the skills gap, we desperately need underrepresented groups recruited; women would certainly be one of those.\u201d<\/p>\n

Matthews says West Coast Women in Trades will be a collection of services in terms of support, mentoring, and job placement.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s the next battle for women,\u201d says Matthews. \u201cIt\u2019s one thing for them to choose to be educated at Camosun in the trades; it\u2019s another thing for them to be accepted on the job sites.\u201d<\/p>\n

The final donation of $10,000 came from students, through the CCSS. Matthews says it was a lovely way for Camosun to tell donors that students are also supportive.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is being added to the scholarship funding for trade students,\u201d says Matthews. \u201cWe\u2019ve talked a lot of big numbers here, but for the student society to have endorsed what we\u2019re trying to do by contributing, and by helping us invest in students, it\u2019s one of the very meaningful gifts we\u2019ve received and one we hugely appreciate.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Camosun College has reached their $6.5-million funding goal for new buildings and renovations at the Interurban campus. The college\u2014which raised the funds through its TRADEmark of Excellence campaign\u2014exceeded its goal by $1.5 million. A large chunk of the fundraising went toward Interurban\u2019s new Centre for Trades Education and Innovation. TRADEmark of Excellence campaign director Angus […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":13124,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,178],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13123","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-january-4-2017"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13123","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13123"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13123\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13126,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13123\/revisions\/13126"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13124"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13123"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13123"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13123"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}