Northern Lakes College is getting high marks for the graduates it sends out to the workforce.
In 2006, NLC became the latest Alberta College to offer apprenticeship training and testing, sparing students a drive to Edmonton to realize the final steps of provincial examination.
The Leader spoke with a very proud Al Churchill, Senior Coordinator for Trades, NLC about the successes enjoyed by the students and the institution. “We’ve got great instructors. Some of these people are bringing 20 or 30 years of journeyman experience to the classrooms.” This wealth of experience, says Churchill, is translating into sought after graduates who know their stuff.
“We’ve gotten a lot of excellent feedback from industry about the apprentices they send to us,” said the coordinator, adding that the students go back into the field with serious tools; skills that are making a real difference for the companies that hired them in the first place.
Back to the old school
With all the hype surrounding online learning and computer assisted studies of late, you might expect NLC’s trades programming to have benefited from the power of the PC.
Not necessarily, says Churchill.
It turns out that some learning is best left to tradition.
In the case of some trades, hands-on instruction from learned journeymen has outfoxed the wily computer.
“In my humble observation, I see about a 10 per cent usability with computers (in relation to the trades),” says Churchill. For those interested in learning a hands-on trade, such as welding, having to find your way around a computer turns out to be a speed bump on the road to learning. Simply put, it can be a distraction.
“When we used CBAT (an acronym for Computer Based Assisted Training), we had a pass rate of about 53 per cent,” says the traditionally minded Churchill. “We went back to good old teaching and our pass rate jumped to 94 per cent!”
Good news indeed.
It’s this success rate that has put NLC on the top shelf, a first place that people think of when they think of trades training.
And, its reputation seems to be spreading. So much so, says Churchill, that decisions about initiatives such as the future student housing complex are being swayed by the program’s successes.
This past Friday 32 students graduated, including seven Journeyman welding students.
Upon successfully completing the Red Seal Training, they can practice their trade anywhere in Canada. Congratulations to graduates of Journeyman level welding, second period electrician and first period carpentry training.

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