Bon matin. Good morning.
It's an honour and a pleasure for me to be here this morning to talk to you about the Vocational Training Centre for Aboriginals in the Construction Trades.
This vocational school was the project that was created and funded by Human Resources and Skills Development Canada, HRSDC, under the aboriginal skills employment project, ASEP. Pursuant to the project mandate, the Vocational Training Centre for Aboriginals in the Construction Trades was created to provide skilled training and the forms of diploma leading to employment.
I will be doing my presentation in French, but I will be pleased to answer all the different questions.
Thank you.
The mission of the Vocational Training Centre is to develop an Aboriginal workforce with the skills required to practice the trades and occupations of the construction industry and all other related sectors. The centre offers Aboriginals training services in French and English while respecting their values and cultural specificities. It is inscribed within a perspective of economic, social and cultural development of Aboriginal communities.
The result of a collaborative effort between the Commission de la construction du Québec, the Kahnawake Mohawk Council and the Conseil des Montagnais du Lac-Saint-Jean, the plan to create the centre responds to the need observed by these stakeholders to include Aboriginals in the construction industry by creating a qualified and skilled Aboriginal workforce. Supervised by the Commission scolaire de Montréal, the centre offers training everywhere in Quebec, wherever the communities in an area express a need.
We work in cooperation with all our partners and with all the school boards in Quebec. The centre's team is largely Aboriginal and creates added value to the traditional Aboriginal approach. The centre is operated by a management committee. It has representation from the Aboriginal community, from unions, from employers, from the Commission de la construction du Québec and from the school board. There are 26 trades and six specialized occupations in the construction industry. Programs last from six months to a year and a half. Training is offered with the assistance of various school boards in the province of Quebec.
I have provided you with an information kit. Information on the left is in English, information on the right is in French. Inside, you will find all the programs we offer. As this is a national school, training is offered in English and French. The services provided by the centre are indicated. You will also find all the service agreements we have with the various school boards. We have also included a summary of all the training courses offered in Quebec between 2009 and 2012.
To date, 148 students have graduated and 55 will do so soon, either in October or November. That is a total of 203 students. We have trained 305 Aboriginal students in ASP Construction and 112 in CCGIC. So we can say that we have trained around 700 Aboriginal students since the Vocational Training Centre opened.
In a way, we are the victims of our own success. It took some time to make ourselves known and to develop working relationships with people, but, nowadays, community members and school board staff are calling us with a view to working with us to provide training all across the province. To date, we have offered courses in drilling and blasting, carpentry, heavy equipment operation, plastering, preparing and finishing concrete. In Maniwaki, we have offered linesman, drilling and blasting, and carpentry courses. In Listuguj, we have offered another linesman course and a course in heavy equipment operation for forestry.
There was also a carpentry course in Natashquan and courses in trucking, drilling and blasting, surveying, and heavy equipment operation in Havre-Saint-Pierre.
This was also the first time that we offered linesman and heavy equipment operator courses in the province of Quebec.
For each different kind of training offered in each community or nation, the tables also show the numbers of students to complete, or about to complete, the various programs. At the very end of the document, you can see all the ASP Construction courses that have been offered in the various Aboriginal communities. You can also see the success rates. When we start courses with 25 students, we finish them with 20 or 23. The retention rate is excellent in terms of the continuity of the various programs.
In my opinion, a factor that contributes to the success is that, as each cohort begins, we always have follow-up or development officers who monitor the Aboriginal students. We also offer an Aboriginal life skills course before each cohort begins.
I think the fact that we have partnerships with different unions, with employers, with Aboriginal communities and with school boards really contributes to the success of the centre.
Thank you.