Thompson Rivers University partners with industry to bolster trades program

KAMLOOPS – An agreement between Thompson Rivers University and local heavy industry will help support training for trades students. 

An agreement was signed today, July 28, between Domtar, Unifor local 10B and Thompson Rivers University to support the university’s trades students in their training programs. The agreement also vows to, where possible, hire students from the university’s foundation programs at the Domtar mill in Kamloops.

“For Domtar to continue to be an employer of choice we need to create an environment where current and prospective employees can realize their career aspirations by learning and applying new skills,” Carol Lapointe, general manager of the mill, says in a release.

Domtar will allow students access to the mill to demonstrate systems not available in the university. They will also help provide training for programs like risk assessment. Students will also be able to job shadow, allowing students to gain hours in a particular trade.

Both Domtar and Unifor have agreed to provide bursaries and scholarships, and Domtar will continue to supply surplus equipment to the trades program.

“(The university’s) first strategic priority is to ensure the academic and career success of our students. Our long-standing relationship with Domtar has always helped us in this task. Today that partnership is expanded in a visionary and innovative way. Unifor 10B and Domtar have literally opened their doors to new and exciting opportunities for (the university's) students and faculty,” university president and vice chancellor Alan Shaver says in the release.

Recently, the federal government announced $2 million in funding to help Thompson Rivers University's trades program create an instrumentation engineering program.

To contact a reporter for this story, email Dana Reynolds at dreynolds@infonews.ca or call 250-819-6089. To contact an editor, email mjones@infonews.ca or call 250-718-2724.