St. John’s, NS — Nova Scotia launches a new skilled trades school. The Institute of Skilled Trades (IST) is offered by the Nova Scotia Community College (NSCC) and provides students and apprentices with modern skills training.
The new institute will receive an investment of $25 million to purchase new equipment and tools to enhance classrooms, training, and workshops across the province.
“Skilled trades training has always been at the heart of what we do as a college. This new institute will draw key voices from industry directly into decision-making to ensure programming is even more closely tied to industry needs. There are tremendous opportunities for economic growth on Nova Scotia’s near horizon. Graduating students that are job-ready with the skills employers need, as they’re needed, supports student success and is a central part of delivering on our mission to build our province’s economy and quality of life through education and innovation,” said Don Bureaux, president of NSCC.
The IST will support training across 30 pre-apprenticeship programs across construction, industrial and manufacturing, motive power and service trades. Training will be led by an industry-led council that will modernize and strengthen skilled trades programming. As stated in the press release, “The IST will focus on improving training quality, transforming learning environments and supporting more graduates and apprentices to meaningful, in-demand careers.”
The press release adds that, “The NSCC, as the primary training provider for the skilled trades, will continue to deliver the training through the IST, and the NSCC board of governors will retain full authority for governance and oversight.”
In the past year, the number of technical training seats at NSCC increased by more than 1,000, and pre-apprenticeship seats increased by 260.