Students at Sudbury’s Cambrian College have completed the first semester of a new three-year diploma program in Energy Systems Technology.
Major savings can be gained in small commercial construction
Students at Sudbury’s Cambrian College have completed the first semester of a new three-year diploma program in Energy Systems Technology.
The program is designed to prepare graduates for careers in the sustainable energy field, with a focus on residential and small commercial developments. Students are familiarized with renewable energy systems including power generated from the sun, wind, water, biomass and geothermal sources, with a strong emphasis on energy management, building codes and green construction technology. Students will also be certified under Ontario’s Home Energy Audit program before they graduate.
“We’re focusing on residential and small commercial construction because they’re the sectors that use the most energy, and yet there aren’t enough professionals trained to serve that market,” says Les Lisk, Project Co-ordinator for Applied Research at the college’s Sustainable Energy Centre. The centre itself is a laboratory of sorts, striving to become North America’s first Living Building, a new standard under the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) program. To achieve that distinction, the building’s water, energy and sewage systems must be virtually self-sustaining. The building is still under construction, giving students valuable insight into the construction process.
“The professionals designing and constructing the building come to speak to the students as they’re working on it,” says Lisk. “One of the building’s architects recently spent an hour with the students to keep them up to date with what was happening on the project.”
Once complete, the centre will feature research pods designed to test potentially marketable technologies for entrepreneurs and manufacturers. “The students will work directly with businesses to test these new ideas,” says Lisk. “A manufacturer could bring in a solar-powered water heater and work on improvements with the students.”
Many of those enrolled in the program are mature students who have work experience or other courses under their belts.
Brendan McClellan, who returned to his native Sudbury to enroll in the program, wants to focus on building his own energy auditing business. “I originally enrolled in a university business program, but I realized that it was basically designed to teach students how to fill out paperwork for someone else’s business,” he says. “I’ll already be certified to perform energy audits before graduating and can work at that on weekends. This is definitely something to which I want to devote the next [portion] of my life.”
Kyle Gascoigne is a student originally from London, Ont. who became interested in the program after seeing a recruiting advertisement on television. “I read up on the program and the more I read, the more interested I became,” he says. “This is something new and on the edge that could be both commercially and environmentally rewarding.” Gascoigne says he hopes to start his own business, focusing on building and installing affordable solar-power systems that will be less expensive and easier to install than current models.
Businesses have already expressed interest in hiring the first crop of two dozen grads, due to enter the marketplace in 2010. “A Sault Ste. Marie architectural firm has told us they want some of the grads to work with them,” says Lisk. “Xstrata Metals has also donated $2 million to the program and says they want to hire our graduates as well.”
Employer demand is so great that the program may expand to accept twice as many students next September, he says.
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