No shortage of opportunities.

• Author: HUNEAULT, GREG
• Position: Engineering firms recruiting college graduates - Brief Article

Firms across nation scout for engineers among college grads.

Northern College, based in Porcupine, is just one post-secondary institution witnessing distressing gaps between supply and demand of qualified engineering technicians and technologists.

Jo-Anne Boucher-Miron, Northern Colleges co-ordinator of the school of engineering, says she is seeing at ground level an unmet demand for graduates who, in a changing labour market, appear to have a choice of jobs in their fields.

For example, the provincial Transportation Ministry, which had gutted its workforce in the mid-1990s to cut costs, recently advertised openings for 40 technical positions, and industry is also trying to attract workers.

Boucher-Miron says Northern College, which serves northeastern Ontario, is no different from other colleges in feeling the draw of students from programs with traditionally high enrolment to other programs centred on high-tech and information technology.

She says the college is getting calls from employers as far as Alberta and the Northwest Territories who know that Northern College produces graduates in common disciplines.

She says there are many opportunities for graduates in programs including:

* Civil engineering technology with survey option

* Construction building management

* Electrical and electronics engineering technology

* Architecture technology, and

* Instrumentation.

However, students do not appear to understand the range of career choices.

"I don't think the message is getting across sufficiently," she says.

The college is considering a placement strategy to provide better real-life experience and is exploring the possibility of an accelerated program that would crop a year's commitment from a three-year program. Those who do graduate can expect a range of starting salaries depending on a number of factors. However, recently a graduate of the college's civil technology program was hired as a manager of a municipal public works with a starting salary of $42,000.

"Colleges can only do so much advertising of their programs. We need to educate parents, the government and industry," Boucher-Miron says. "I think industry has to help to promote programs and promote industries at high schools.

We need to collaborate and we need more...