Selkirk College Launches First Ever Classroom on Wheels

Selkirk College is launching the first Industrial Mobile Training program in the West Kootenay, thanks to a $74,000 contribution from Columbia Basin Trust.

The program will consist of a unique educational plan where equipment and instructors travel to communities to offer specialized industrial training. In other words, it’s a classroom on wheels, and in this case the classroom will travel throughout the local region on a 40-ft. flat bed trailer and truck tractor.

This will be a new way of tackling concerns around employers’ needs in the industrial sectors, as well as a means to supply additional education in industry to students from communities across the Basin.

“CBT is excited to be supporting this innovative course by Selkirk,” said Wally Penner, Vice President of Community Partnerships. “This programming is in direct response to the needs of Basin industry, and CBT is pleased to be able to bridge the gap between training opportunities and employer needs in our rural Basin communities.”

Vi Kalesnikoff, Dean of Community, Corporate and International Development at Selkirk College, said Selkirk is equally excited about the program and the roots for its creation.

“Selkirk is a community college, and we feel that it is part of our responsibility to respond to the needs of our community,” said Kalesnikoff. “We’ve known about a need for more training in the industrial field for the last five years, and with the funding from CBT, this program provides an opportunity for us to move in a direction that responds to our region’s needs.”

The new mobile training program will be implemented in two phases. The first, which is taking place this year, will see participants being able to take provincially-licensed certification in general areas such as forklift, air brakes, industrial rigging and scaffolding.

Phase two will launch in fall 2009, and will see a more specialized curriculum identified after further discussion with industry employers about which additional skills are most needed.

Anyone interested in the Industrial Mobile Training program can contact Vi Kalesnikoff.

First published on September 16, 2008