The Hamilton Public Library and Burlington Public Library have joined forces with Mohawk College to bring education to the broader community.
The three organizations have signed an agreement to formally commit to increasing programs and resources for Hamilton and Burlington, with the biggest part of that commitment being Mohawk College’s City School program.
Jim Vanderveken, Dean of the Centre for Community Partnerships and Experiential Learning at Mohawk College, said the initiative is about bringing the classroom to people who wouldn’t necessarily think of pursuing post-secondary education.
“We have a state-of-the-art mobile classroom that we can place right into the neighbourhoods,” said Vanderveken. “We can do state-of-the-art training there, skills training, apprenticeship training, health care training — the whole gamut of all the things that the college is capable of doing can be done through the City School model.”
He adds that the program is entirely free of charge, removing the financial barrier of education.
More than 1,000 people have used the program since it began in 2015, with over 500 of those students receiving a credential. In June, 65 students will be graduating from Mohawk College after getting their start through City School.
Hamilton Public Library CEO Paul Takala said the libraries play an important role in this program, since they’re already physically embedded in numerous locations across the community.
“It creates a path forward,” said Takala. “It’s free but it follows the full certification and testing that you would get to get the credit. So if a student who might not think that they can do college, if they can succeed in these courses, that helps them develop a positive attitude for moving forward.”
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Part of Friday’s announcement includes a new College 101 course that will be offered at the Burlington Public Library’s central branch starting April 16.
Burlington Public Library CEO Lita Barrie said this comes after another successful City School course at a different Burlington library branch.
“We’ve just wrapped up offering the food and nutrition program at our Aldershot branch, which is one of the courses that is part of the Early Childhood Education Program,” Barrie said. “So residents in our Aldershot community were able to take this course for course credit and some of them are going on to pursue ECE learning.”
Vanderveken said a number of local employers have expressed an interest in the City School program, including ArcelorMittel Dofasco, Stelco, Hamilton Health Sciences and National Steel Car.
The program is also looking at expanding into the Haldimand Region with the Caledonia Public Library and into more organizations in the Halton Region, including the Halton Women’s Place.
“We see this as an initiative that can be scaled and amplified very easily out to the surrounding region,” said Vanderveken. “And that’s our ambition.”
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