Thank you for the opportunity.
As Serge mentioned, I'm the chair of the national association, but I'm also the senior director with Academy Canada. We're a Newfoundland-based career college that has been open since 1984. We deliver 35 programs and train approximately 2,000 students per year, half of whom are trained in Red Seal apprenticeship training programs. I'm happy to be here today to offer a real world example.
My office is located about 10 feet from a student lounge of a skilled trades college. I'm not sure how much more real world you can get than hearing what students say while they're on their breaks from classes. I'd like to share with you some of their thoughts.
One of the challenges that every student faces, whether in an apprenticeship program, a different college program, or a university program, is obviously financing and paying for their education. Then there's the worry and fear about what happens beyond that in terms of repaying that debt. When word came of the apprenticeship loan program, it spread very quickly through the college, and students were very excited about the idea because, as one of the witnesses said earlier, it is perceived as being ready to fill a gap, one that is very real and very much a deterrent to students not just starting a program but in many cases finishing the program.
I would compliment the committee and government on that program and encourage them to continue with similar types of programs. I also encourage them to follow the suit of the Newfoundland government. As many of you are probably aware, the Province of Newfoundland and Labrador recently announced that they were going to be converting the entire loan portion of the Newfoundland student loan to grant. I know that and I have a true appreciation.
I don't say those words lightly when I encourage you to follow suit. This is without question the ultimate solution to the student debt issue and to accessibility to post-secondary training, whether it's in the skilled trades or otherwise. If a province with some of the unique economic challenges of Newfoundland and Labrador can do this, I feel that there is room for looking at it in a broader scope across the country.
I'd like to move away from that just for a very quick moment and speak of some successes that we've had with the aboriginal community, specifically through my school, and I will unashamedly speak of it.
We have two fairly significant aboriginal communities in Labrador, Natuashish and Sheshatshiu. Some of you will be familiar with these. They are communities that have historically had significant challenges, with a wide range of social and economic issues.
It's led by a number of very forward-thinking individuals who see that the future solution is in education. They saw circumstances in which students in the past were leaving the community to go to study in off-community schools. The success rates—including at my school, by the way—were abysmal: fewer than 10% of the students who were starting were completing.