Latest news with #NSCC
CBC
3 days ago
- General
- CBC
Researchers work to improve communications equipment for first responders
Researchers working with Halifax Regional Fire and Emergency are making it their mission to improve communication equipment used by first responders. The project, led by the Nova Scotia Community College's applied research team, aims to upgrade an existing device that enhances radio coverage. It's called a digital vehicular repeater system (DVRS) and it's typically built into emergency vehicles — but it can only reach so far. The device can cut out in areas where there are often cellular brownouts, like in concrete buildings or underground areas. In some situations, this can not only slow first responders down, but it can be dangerous for them. "This radio is a line of safety for them so they're able to call emergencies, they're able to reach out to their peers to get assistance," said Mark Burgess, Halifax Fire's division chief of technology and innovation. "If they cannot communicate, then they cannot do that." To soften this issue, Halifax Fire's communications technician created a prototype of a portable DVRS. It allows first responders to carry it with them and extend radio connection, rather than it being built into an emergency vehicle. Burgess said the prototype is not yet being used in emergency situations, but Halifax Fire has been testing it for the last few months. The organization has since given the prototype to researchers with Nova Scotia Community College's applied research team in hopes of making it even better. Jacob Woods, a research associate with the team, said one issue identified with the current prototype is how heavy it is. "So they're in a rush to get out — 30 seconds, a minute — doesn't sound like much," Wood said. "For a firefighter who's trying to respond to an emergency, it adds some pretty significant time." He said they're hoping to make the device lighter so it's easier to carry. "In a perfect world, we're hoping to really slim down the size of this," Woods said. "But we're still in the early preliminary stages here, just getting a better sense of what's in the box, what the equipment is and what we can do with it." Fire departments have been seeing an increase in calls in the last few years, Burgess said, which will require better equipment. "Any time that we are able to go in and do our job safely, that's a benefit to the public," he said.
Globe and Mail
13-05-2025
- General
- Globe and Mail
With demand for skilled trades soaring, more women join the ranks
Claudette Roy still remembers her first day of classes to become an HVAC (heating, ventilation, and air conditioning) tech and gas fitter. 'I walked into my first class and the teacher looked at me and said, 'I think you're in the wrong room,'' she says. 'That was the start of it – you're in the wrong place.' That was nearly 21 years ago and Ms. Roy would become the first woman to graduate from her program at Nova Scotia Community College (NSCC). She originally entered the program to learn to fix issues that popped up at a rental property she owned. If the boiler died or the air conditioning had problems, she wanted to take care of them herself. 'I found this HVAC course that did some plumbing, some electrical, some piping. It had a little bit of everything, so I signed up.' It turns out, Ms. Roy was a natural, and she fell in love. At first, she was the only woman in her classes. Then, she was the only woman on job sites. That has changed somewhat over the past two decades that Ms. Roy has been working – but not much. In 2022, Statistics Canada reported that women made up 8.3 per cent of skilled trades workers, up from 5.9 per cent when tracking began in 1987. But we need more people in skilled trades, particularly women. The construction industry across the country needs to recruit more than 350,000 new workers in the next decade in order to keep up the pace of construction and offset the hundreds of thousands of baby boomers set to retire. In response, trades schools and colleges have looked to recruit and retain women with a variety of programs. NSCC offers Women Unlimited, a free, 14-week program that includes job shadowing and site visits, to introduce women to the realities of working in a trade. Industry groups, such as Women On Site, which has chapters across Ontario, plus a handful further west, allow women in trades to find community and connection with others, which can be crucial. 'It's about creating bonds and relationships, because that's what's going to help them once they graduate,' says Ruth Lebelo-Almaw, co-ordinator of women in Red Seal skilled trades at Fanshawe College in London, Ont. Ms. Lebelo-Almaw focuses on recruitment and retention of women at Fanshawe, hosting programs like the Jill of All Trades fair for high school students, aiming to present skilled trades as a viable career path early. Fanshawe is also a partner of the Women on Site group, and promotes that connection early to help students build a stable foundation of peers across the industry. That can be important, especially to young women who might be on their first job. Though it's been more than 20 years since Ms. Roy was told she was in the wrong room, there are still misconceptions and difficulties that women face on a job site. 'Homeowners sometimes think that I am my boss's daughter, or that I'm related to somebody at the company,' says Olivia VanDenBelt, a Fanshawe graduate and a carpentry apprentice. Ms. VanDenBelt saw a few women in her classes, but says she's often the only one at a work site. That can also mean needing to get creative. While women can do any job men can, they may do it a little differently. For Ms. VanDenBelt, that means finding ways to lift heavy sheets of plywood that she simply can't muscle up like her male coworkers can. 'I built little ramps on a two by four to help me slide the sheet up, because I wasn't quite tall enough, or as tall as some of my co-workers to get the sheets up high enough and to make it feel safe for me,' she says. 'It took an extra five minutes, but now my co-worker could also use the sled, and it made it easier for him too.' Equipment is getting easier to source as well. Courtney Poirier, a refrigeration apprentice in Halifax, remembers trying to find a pair of steel-toed boots just two years ago. 'I walked in and asked, 'where's the women's section?' And the man said, 'we don't have one.' I told him 'that's part of the problem.'' Since then, Ms. Poirier has already noticed more stores offering a wider selection of women's workwear – including boots. It can be frustrating for the women working these jobs that we're even still talking about the lack of women in trades. When asked, every woman interviewed said that they were surprised their choice of career was still seen as out of the ordinary. But ultimately, everyone also acknowledged that it's still a necessary conversation. 'We still have under representation. That means it's probably healthy that we're having this conversation. It means that we're not there yet – but we're doing lots of work to get there,' says Sarah Hall, dean of the school of trades and transportation with NSCC. Ms. Hall says the school's recruitment efforts have paid off and NSCC has seen an increase in enrolment. This year, 14 per cent of their student body identifies as female, up from 9 per cent last year. Women are still in the minority in trades, but Ms. Roy sees that changing, as more apprentices join the ranks, and she's happy to welcome as many interested people as she can to the profession. 'It's a trades-person's world right now. We don't have to fight to be an apprentice or carry someone's bag any more. We … make good money doing it. I couldn't recommend something more right now.'
CBC
13-05-2025
- Politics
- CBC
'We just want to be a world-class college,' says NSCC president as college looks to the future
As university officials across the province continue to work through what the fallout of Bill 12 means for them, the president of the Nova Scotia Community College knows what it does not mean for his institution. "We have no aspirations to become a university," Don Bureaux said in a recent interview. "We just want to be a world-class college." Although much of the attention Bill 12 — An Act Respecting Advanced Education and Research — received as it was being debated at Province House centred on its ramifications for the province's 10 universities, the bill also made changes to Research Nova Scotia and the Community Colleges Act, the latter of which governs the NSCC. Those changes include giving the responsible cabinet minister the power to give binding directions to the NSCC board respecting policies, programs of study and services, and property, revenue and business affairs of the college. Changes not a surprise Bureaux said none of that caught him or anyone else at NSCC by surprise because of conversations they were having with government officials in the lead-up to the Progressive Conservatives introducing Bill 12 this past winter. "Quite frankly, many of the changes that affect our act were housekeeping," he said. "We were operating under those rules of engagement anyway." To observers, perhaps the biggest change in Bill 12 for NSCC is the ability to grant undergraduate degrees if authorized by the provincial cabinet and certain criteria are met. Bureaux said it's becoming more common for colleges across the country to grant degrees, but if it happens at NSCC, it would be focused on workplace-driven needs and done in a way that does not cut into the work already happening at universities. He gave examples of degrees related to advanced manufacturing, mining operations and the ocean sector as some of the offerings at other colleges. "For the most part, they're very applied degrees that are conducive and aligned with the applied learning environments that exist at colleges," said Bureaux, adding that conversations at NSCC about what could be offered there are only just beginning. "Right now there's no definitive plans as to what degrees we'd offer and we'd want to be very aware of the 10 universities in this province that we work very closely with — that do a great job — to make sure that we're adding and not duplicating or competing with the pre-existing degrees that are in the province." Even without adding degrees to the college's offerings, there are annual reviews to ensure the programs that are available meet the needs of students and the province more broadly. Always evaluating program offerings Officials at NSCC recently announced the music business program would be placed on hold and several campuses will not offer the business administration diploma program in the coming semester. In both cases, low enrolment was a driving factor in the decision. "We make sure that we have programs that students want to enrol in, that the economy needs in terms of workforce development and that those jobs are contributing to the priorities of the province of Nova Scotia in terms of where the economy or society is going," said Bureaux. In recent years, that's meant a "dramatic increase" in demand for training in the health-care and skilled trades sectors. Bureaux said students are coming to NSCC with the expectation that when they complete their training there will be a good job waiting for them in Nova Scotia. The provincial government has called on the college periodically to increase opportunities for programs such as continuing care assistants, early childhood education and in the construction trades to meet pressing employment needs in the province. Bureaux said the determining factor in whether those programs can accommodate more people comes down to a combination of available space, faculty and, in the case of skilled trades, available apprenticeship agreements. In some cases, program expansion can be accommodated through creativity. Some long-term care facilities that need workers have partnered with the college to provide learning space for students who could go on to become future employees. "They actually can be training on site with dedicated classrooms at their facilities that would allow for that integrated learning to happen," said Bureaux.
CBC
14-03-2025
- Business
- CBC
From dairy maker to marine trainer: The evolution of Port Hawkesbury's Ocean Innovation Centre
The backers of a marine-themed development centre on the Port Hawkesbury, N.S., waterfront hope new tenants will turn the onetime dairy operation into a beehive of ocean activity. The building was home to the Port Hawkesbury Creamery during the first half of the 1900s. It later served as a hardware store, a community centre, a performance venue and a candy factory before sitting idle for a decade. Since 2020, the town and the Cape Breton Partnership have run the former creamery building as the Ocean Innovation Centre. The Nova Scotia Community College Nautical Institute hosts marine training classes in the building, and officials with NSCC, the town and the partnership are all aiming for new tenants to further develop the possibilities for the marine sector in the Strait of Canso and beyond. The COVID-19 pandemic stalled plans for NSCC marine training to locate in the Ocean Innovation Centre. However, since 2021, the college has set up a 24-seat classroom, change rooms and lockers, a lunchroom, washrooms and office space within the building. Close to 300 Nautical Institute students have done a significant portion of their training at the centre over the past four years, according to Vivek Saxena, principal of the NSCC Strait Area Campus, which includes the institute. "This particular space helps us to get those students trained while they are in that area, so they don't have to come to the campus for the training and then go there for the practical," said Saxena. The NSCC principal, who headed up the Nautical Institute prior to his current post, also feels the Ocean Innovation Centre offers visibility to those with an interest in working on the water. "People see the students getting trained and resuming their training in public as people are going by on the water," Saxena said. "And when people come into the building and they see what the marine training is, it definitely helps us promote careers at sea as a whole." 'A huge advantage,' says Port Hawkesbury mayor With green hydrogen and offshore wind projects taking shape in the Strait of Canso, Port Hawkesbury's mayor and other backers feel the Ocean Innovation Centre could attract the type of tenants that could make the facility a renewable energy leader. "It's not just something that's unique to the Strait or Nova Scotia — it's a national opportunity," said Mayor Brenda Chisholm-Beaton, pointing to a $600-million hydrogen-export program between Canada and Germany that was announced at the centre this past summer. "I think it's going to be a huge advantage." In the meantime, as the centre's stakeholders prepare a strategy for the building, Cape Breton Partnership CEO Tyler Mattheis feels marine-driven developers in Port Hawkesbury and the surrounding area can take ownership of the building and make it their own. "The town of Port Hawkesbury is a strategic location, and they have really innovative, smart people. And sometimes they're making their products and their processes in their basements, or perhaps independently," said Mattheis. "And to have a place where they can go and connect with their supports … they don't have to leave Port Hawkesbury. They can access those tools here and then have a space to expand on that product at the Ocean Innovation Centre."
