After more than a year of planning, the Georgian College Recreational Boating Centre of Excellence in Midland was officially opened on September 25.
The centre will bear the names of Victor and Hazel Carpenter, renowned builders of custom sail and powerboats, whose boatyard is just a few kilometres down the road from the new facility. Vic’s creations for such customers as Gordon Lightfoot were not only beautifully crafted works of art but usually the fastest on the water as well.
Wayne Redditt, former faculty member and coordinator of the Marine Tech Program at Georgian College, apprenticed under Vic Carpenter. Redditt expressed his admiration for both Vic’s skills and craftsmanship.
The creation of the Recreational Boating Centre of Excellence was the brainchild of the OMOA’s Al Donaldson. Al saw an opportunity to do things the right way when Georgian announced the marine training programs would be moved from the Orillia Campus, where they have been since 1968, to Midland.
A campaign to set about raising $500,000 was officially launched at the OMOA Conference last December. This would convince Georgian College that the marine industry was serious about becoming partners in this endeavour. In early September 2007, the fundraising target was surpassed (see list of donors at right).
In April 2007, Chris Bentley, Minister of Training, Colleges and Universities, announced an investment of $1.9 million for building and facilities upgrading at the Midland Campus. The impressive results of this investment were on display for the more than 250 guests who attended the official grand opening of the Recreational Boating Centre of Excellence on September 25.
Everything in the marine labs is brand new, from workstations to a forklift truck. Separate multi-station test tank rooms for full-time students and corporate training students are state-of-the-art. The workshop area is much larger than at the former site, giving students much needed working space.
New labs were also created for corporate training. Again, these are larger at the Midland campus than those previously available. Current users of these labs include Mercury Marine, Volvo Penta and Harley Davidson, with space available to accommodate other manufacturers’ service training if required. New classrooms were added in a mezzanine above these labs for in-class instruction.
In his opening speech, Georgian College president and CEO Brian Tamblyn stated, “This is the finest example of industry and Georgian partnership working together to provide industry-driven training in marine and other skilled trades.”
“The increased capacity of the centre will significantly increase access to apprenticeship and marine industry training in Simcoe County,” Tamblyn added. “This increase means hundreds more students, many with family obligations, can receive training and ultimately work closer to home.”
Joining Tamblyn on the stage, Al Donaldson remarked, “The opening of the Recreational Boating Centre of Excellence will be something that the marine industry will remember for a long time, and is just the beginning of a major challenge to overcome the serious skills shortage in the marine industry.”
Donaldson thanked all of the fund-raising campaign leaders for their efforts and apologized for being the leader of the team that beat all of the others. He also noted, “The Minister of Labour just told us that Ontario last year registered 25,000 apprentices, and the marine industry only graduated 35 apprentices in the past five years. That demonstrates how much work we have to do!”
Midland campus manager Gabe Koopmans added, “We’re extremely excited to have such a wonderful facility, and being able to offer much needed training and education at a local level is a win-win situation for our students, the college and the community.” Speaking of the community, while many of them were on vacation during the summer, Koopmans, Warren Howes, Rick Corbett, Randy Clarke, Kevin Janes and many other Georgian people were busy getting the programs and equipment moved from Orillia, and setting up the new labs so they were ready for the 42 incoming students in September. It was quite an effort, so the OMOA would like to thank them all.
Ontario Minister of Labour Steve Peters, Simcoe North MPP Garfield Dunlop, Simcoe North MP Bruce Stanton, Georgian College Board Chair John McCullough and Electrical Apprentice student Jeremy Walker rounded out the group of speakers who took the podium at the opening ceremony.
The newly renovated Recreational Boating Centre of Excellence is also home to several other full- and part-time programs, including RV Technician, Electrician, Tool and Die, General Machinist and Mould Maker Apprenticeship in-school training.