A decade ago, new doors opened for College Boreal in Timmins.
In 2009, the French community college and Université de Hearst opened a combined campus in Timmins.
About 100 people celebrated the milestone this week at the Theriault Boulevard campus.
College Boreal has been in the city since 1995 and has operated at a number of locations over the yeras.
“It’s been quite remarkable if you look at our previous site on the corner of Elm and Algonquin, it was tough times,” said College Boreal president Daniel Giroux.
At that site, there were no exterior doors in the classrooms and he said equipment would be brought into the classroom piece-by-piece through small corridors.
The modern campus has allowed them to offer programs — including post-secondary, apprenticeshop, continuing education, and more — that are in demand by industry.
What the school really wanted, said Giroux, was a site to offer quality facilities, great classrooms, technology. They wanted something to be proud of.
“After a lot of work, finally we were able to move in here in September 2009, so we’re very proud,” he said.
Giroux explained the truck and coach technician program is one example of how the campus is offering a program in-demand by the industry.
Launched in 2018, the two-year program is unique to the Timmins campus and was created because of the industry struggling to hire heavy duty truck and coach mechanics.
The community college has been adapting.
Giroux noted a number of years ago, health science and community-related programs were really important from a bilingual perspective.
"And more and more, the trades technology are becoming critical because a lot of the suppliers in the industry have contracts in Quebec, have international contracts that for a Francophone perspective is absolutely critical. There’s 300 million people that currently speak French and that’s going to increase to almost 900 million by 2065, so the growth rate of the Francophone people speaking French is growing tremendously. There’s a huge value-added in attracting business to Timmins if there’s a bilingual workforce available,” he said.
Timmins campus director Melanie Dufresne said there is a lot to be proud of at the school.
She listed the workshops for the trades, labs for hairdressing and nursing, and the state-of-the-art equipment that's been invested in.
“We are really appreciative of all the partners that have been supporting us throughout the past years...they’ve been providing practical placements for our students, we’ve received donations from our partners, whether equipment or financial, so that’s something that’s really important to maintain and keep because we are a community college, we’re in the centre of the city, we need those partners to be able to continue,” she said.
In a news release, Universite de Hearst president Luc Bussieres said they've been offering university-level education services in Timmins for more than 42 years.
"This is proof of our institution's firm and ongoing dedication to the Francophone community in Timmins. Our new campus on Theriault Boulevard has raised our profile and strengthened our commitment over the past 10 years," he said.
"The addition of our student residence at 180 Jubilee Ave., our expanded program offerings and the growing number of international students at our Timmins campus are clear signs that Universite de Hearst will be investing in the development of human potential in Timmins for a long time to come."
Since opening the new campus, College Boreal has handed out 482 diplomas. Universite de Hearst has awarded 84 diplomas in Timmins.
