ACC expands programming with $2M funding boost

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 03/08/2023 (1153 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Assiniboine Community College will launch two new agriculture-related programs in September 2024 after receiving approximately $2 million in funding from the provincial government announced on Wednesday.

Of that total, $1.6 million is designated to cover the capital costs of starting a mechatronics program in Brandon.

Speaking to the Sun by phone, ACC president Mark Frison said the name is a combination of mechanical and electrical engineering.

“It is basically a program that helps with industrial automation,” he said. “So it has applications in food processing, but also in other forms of manufacturing and processing environments.”

That means that graduates won’t just be appealing to companies like Roquette, which runs a pea processing plant in Portage la Prairie, but also for firms like Brandon’s Behlen Industries, Frison said.

The program will have spaces for 24 students, who will work toward a three-year diploma. Frison said he thought it was the college’s first diploma of that length, but they are more common at other institutions like Red River College.

Ahead of the first classes being held next year, Frison said the college will be hard at work setting up the required lab and recruiting students and personnel.

The other announcement was the allocation of $335,900 to expand its horticulture program at the college’s Dauphin campus.

With Vermillion Growers recently opening a year-round greenhouse operation in Dauphin, Frison said the program expansion is well-timed since it provides an example of where students can work once they’ve graduated.

“We actually have a first class of horticulture (students) that’s funded specifically by the Congress of Aboriginal Peoples that’s working its way through now,” Frison said. “And then this will allow us to have a more regular offering into 2024.”

Frison said that while ACC’s initial horticulture and sustainable foods course offerings 10 years ago were hard to recruit for, they now have one of the school’s longest waitlists.

Frison said the college’s next priority is to get its Prairie Innovation Centre across the finish line. So far, around $17 million has been raised out of a goal of around $20 million.

Last week’s announcement of funds to help build an early learning centre as part of the development was a helpful push, he said.

Also as part of the announcement, the province announced $381,000 in funding to add information technology programs to the University College of the North in the Pas as well as a further $1 million to improve capacity for workforce development.

“Our government remains committed to partnering with colleges and universities to ensure students have access to leading-edge, high-quality education and training opportunities that set them up for rewarding careers,” Economic Development Minister Jeff Wharton stated in a media release.

“In turn, we are building a workforce with the skills and talent needed to sustain the economic momentum we have generated in Manitoba’s northern and rural communities.”

» cslark@brandonsun.com

» Twitter: @ColinSlark