Algonquin wins community award

By Chris Hunt

hunt0256@algonquincollege.com

Algonquin is among four colleges that have been awarded the Corporate/Community Partnership award for its groundbreaking partnership with Hydro One that has far reaching benefits for the school and for the utilities sector.

The award was given Feb. 22 in Toronto.

 “It’s a win for Hydro One, for Algonquin and, most of all, for students enrolled in the updated diploma program. It provides scholarship monies, new skills required by Hydro One, summer placements at Hydro One for qualified and selected students, and a large employer seeking Algonquin graduates,” said Joe Ranieri, the director of corporate and business studies at Algonquin.

In 2006 Hydro One, the largest provider and distributer of electricity in Ontario, anticipated a shortage of skilled workers could occur in the near future.  Around 30 per cent of their roughly 4,500 workforce are eligible to retire in the coming years.  The company recognized this potential shortage in skilled workers and proactively requested help in training employees to fill any potential void.

Algonquin, along with three other colleges, (Mohawk, Northern and Georgian) were chosen by the company to train these potential employees the following year.

“Hydro One has been very supportive,” said Frank Bowick, the program coordinator for the electrical program.  “This is a significant initiative for them.”

Three new courses have been added as a result of the agreement.  Students are flocking to the program.  This is the first semester that students could choose between the new utility courses over the more generic ones. 

Roughly 75 per cent of the students chose the utilities course.

“Students recognize the stability and security that working in utilities offer,” said Bowick who continued “It’s really been satisfying and interesting to work with Hydro One and faculty from the other colleges.”

Hydro One donated $3 million dollars evenly between the schools, with each receiving $750,000 over three years.

The college is currently in the second year of the agreement. 

Of that money $550,000 went to academic development and $65,000 went to public relations, promotions and marketing for the partnership.

Another $25,000 went to travel expenses, financial management, steering committees and administrative costs.

About $108,000 was given as a gift for scholarships and bursaries.  This is significant because the donation was endowed, (over $12,000) which means that the provincial government has to match it under the Ontario Trust for Student Support program. 

This means there is around $216,000 in the bank for students in perpetuity.  Bursaries and scholarships are paid from the interest.

“I look at it as Hydro One investing in the students to give them time to study,” said Graham Thompson, manager of the Algonquin College Foundation, which handles the receiving of donations and the dispensation of bursaries and scholarships.

“It’s exciting.  That’s what it’s all about; getting students into the workforce.”

Every year Algonquin will hand out eight bursaries of $1,000 entering the fifth semester of the utilities program. 

For the next three years 12 scholarships will be handed out.  Six of those will be given to students entering their third semester and six given to students entering their fifth semester.