In May, Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced a CAD 12.5M (USD 9.41M) investment to help increase exposure to science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) among young Canadians from kindergarten to Grade 12. The funding, released over five years, for Let’s Talk Science, will allow the program to expand, reaching five million young people from across Canada, particularly those living in rural, remote and Aboriginal communities. The funding will also increase the number of Let’s Talk Science Outreach sites at universities and colleges to almost 50 across the country and expand the organisation’s capacity to reach French-speaking Canadian students in Quebec and across Canada.
The government hopes to increase the number of Canadians graduating and going on to well-paying jobs and careers requiring STEM skills. This autumn, more than a million undergraduate students are arriving on Canadian university campuses, according to Universities Canada, formerly the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada, which is promoting the message that "innovative learning opportunities will prepare them to hit the ground running after graduation."
With education in the forefront T&T focuses in on tunnelling professionals in this issue. TAC is hosting its 2015 Workshop at Queen’s University this month and in coordination, professor, Mark Diederichs, discusses the education opportunities for, current research in and the importance of geological engineering for underground construction (page 40).
For industry members looking for continuing education without pursing an additional degree, there are options for professional development attached to most major conferences, as well as a number of courses offered annually by the Colorado School of Mines.
Recent graduates can consider other non-academic opportunities that offer valuable on-the-job training. For example, Skanska operates its Core Competency Training Program to give entry-level engineers the opportunity to work in all areas of its Heavy Civil Contractor business. During a period of 24 months, engineers complete six rotations, each lasting four months.
"At the completion of all rotations, the employee is assigned to a position that is the best fit for both the employee and Skanska based on the employee’s individual strengths and ability to contribute to the company’s bottom line," Skanska explains in a job listing for the program.
Tetra Tech EBA’s Belinda Li spoke with T&T (page 45) about Engineers Without Borders Canada, with which she volunteered in Malawi working with local water district offices. Her main goal in pursuing the program was to help others, though one additional benefit of Li’s placement is that it helped her develop new skills she wouldn’t have likely gained working in a typical postgraduate engineering role.
She explains, often engineers coming out school are concerned about getting their professional engineering license or that joining a program like Engineers Without Borders will limit their technical and design experience in the early part of their career. "Since I’ve come back, I’ve been able to do design and mathematical modelling," she says, "and if anything that’s the easy part.
"With a lot of our projects the technical part is the simple part. Usually you have an equation or a method of coming up with that work and completing it. The hard part is when you give the report to the council." She continues, "Maybe I didn’t get to do five or six different design experiences but I was able to catch up relatively quickly, and I think it’s the management [experience] for me, that is able to get me into more interesting work"
