SAIT celebrates official opening of 5 new facilities

The Southern Alberta Institute of Technology (SAIT) celebrated the official opening of five new facilities on Wednesday.

According to SAIT president and CEO Dr. David Ross, the five new facilities give the school a future-ready position to offer programming and training to students in sectors where there is demand.

“We understand when you make investments like this, they can’t be here today and gone tomorrow,” he said. “You’re very careful when you have scarce resources that you put it in a place where you have the most students, the most impact.”

“These facilities … are meant to last the test of time. They’re not about catch-up, they’re about us going forward.”

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "These facilities … are meant to last the test of time. They're not about catch-up, they're about us going forward."

The new sites include:

• Career Exploration Centre — a centre where junior high school students explore career options in a fun and educational environment
• Crane and Ironworker Facility —  a new facility which includes heavy equipment for hands-on learning and leading-edge crane simulators
• Gene Haas Foundation CNC Labs — a million dollar computer machining lab
• The Tastemarket by SAIT — a new downtown culinary campus geared toward the culinary entrepreneur
• Green Building Technologies Lab and Demonstration Centre — Calgary’s first net-zero commercial building supporting green technologies research and study

One of the facilities opening its doors is geared not toward current students, but prospective students.

The Career Explorations Centre, which up until now had been a pilot project, gives younger students the ability to gain an appreciation for various industries and the paths they need to follow to find opportunities in them.

“So, when they’re planning their high school, they can take the appropriate courses so when they come to SAIT on completion of high school, they’re ready to go,” Ross said.

Wednesday also marked the facility’s second century of education.