Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. I want to thank the committee for your indulgence this morning.
My name is Ali Ghiassi. I'm here today with my colleague, Piero Cherubini.
I will be providing you with some introductory remarks about Mohawk College and the strategic direction that we're moving towards, and then I will turn it over to Mr. Cherubini, who will talk about some of the great things we're doing to address skills shortages in the communities that we serve.
Mohawk College is a large college in Ontario, with approximately 13,000 full-time students and 5,000 apprentices, with two campuses in Hamilton, one in Brantford, and another in Stoney Creek, Ontario. We provide primarily certificate and diploma programs in a wide variety of areas including business, engineering technology, health sciences, community and urban studies, media and entertainment, and skilled trades and apprenticeship.
The essence of Mohawk's vision is the notion that our graduates are future-ready. Our commitment to give our students the skills they will require to successfully meet the challenges of the 21st century global economy is something we take very seriously. We work very closely with our industry partners to ensure that our graduates have the skills necessary to be employable from day one, and our efforts are paying off. For two years running now, our students have ranked Mohawk the number one rated Ontario college in the greater Toronto and Hamilton area.
As a provincial crown agency, Mohawk College is regulated by the Ontario Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities. In a recent submission to the ministry about the future strategic direction of Mohawk, we proposed an institutional mandate that will focus the college into areas of health, technology, and applied research. At Mohawk, we are proposing to lead in regionalization by creating a centre of excellence. We would like to become Ontario's first specialized institute for health and technology. Both areas are key drivers of our regional economy and long-standing strengths of our college.
We have an impressive track record of working with the federal government in the areas of applied research and commercialization, and we hope the government will continue to support us in the pursuit of our mandate.
Now I would like to turn it over to my colleague, Mr. Cherubini.