Southeast College awarded $30,000 in scholarships to student in the Heavy Equipment and Truck and Transport Diploma program as well as the Industrial Mechanic Applied Certificate program.  

The scholarship donation came from the Mining Industry Human Resources Council (MiHR) and the scholarships were awarded to 13 Southeast College students. 

“We realize that education is expensive, and if there's anything that we can do to help support our students through their educational journey, scholarships are one of those things,” said Sheena Onrait, Vice President, Communications & Strategic Enrollment at Southeast College.

“The federal government’s funding of the Mining Sector Skills and Solutions Strategy for the Clean Economy through Employment and Social Development Canada’s Sectoral Workforce Solutions Program (SWSP) demonstrates the importance of mining to the Government of Canada’s Critical Minerals Strategy and recognition that the sector is facing a people crisis,” said MiHR’s Executive Director Ryan Montpellier, in a recent release.  

He added that in order for the mining industry to transition to a clean economy successfully, the sector needs to grow the amount of qualified and skilled workers. This will support expansion and avoid labour shortages now and in the future.  

“It’s wonderful to see an investment of this magnitude to Southeast College students. Donations such as this go a long way to helping ease the financial pressures of post-secondary study,” said Dr. Vicky Roy, President and CEO of Southeast College in the release.  

Applications are now being accepted for the Heavy Equipment and Truck and Transport Certificate Program and the Industrial Mechanic Applied Certificate Program which are scheduled to begin in September.  

“Our heavy equipment truck and transport course is filling up very quickly, but we do have quite a few spots left in our industrial mechanic program. So the heavy equipment lasts about eight months, and the industrial mechanic program lasts about 4 months,” said Onrait.