News

IMTARC Ship Building & Repair Training Update

Activities and training courses, supporting the shipbuilding and ship repair industry, continue to build at the Industrial Marine Training and Applied Research Centre (IMTARC) in Esquimalt. The Centre fulfills its workforce development mandate through a number of operational streams including leasing, learning facilities, brokering training courses, developing curriculum relevant to the industry and completing special projects that support labour force development. 

One of the Centre’s operational mandates is to lease out learning spaces to industry clients who provide their own instructor, curriculum and students.  Clients can lease one or both of the 24-student capacity classrooms or the 12-station computer lab. Since February 6 2013 IMTARC has leased the
space to a variety of clients, running more than 37 courses and bringing over 826 students to the Centre.

The Centre also canvasses the shipbuilding and ship repair industries to gauge interest in relevant courses they can broker through private or public training providers. For example, IMTARC’s Project Management Fundamentals course is provided by the Victoria-based Project Management Centre of Excellence. The two-day course covers project management terms, processes and knowledge areas, and has just completed its first 24-person session and is being offered twice more over the next several months. This course will be followed up by a Project Management Simulation course(s) that put Project Managers through real-life scenarios and challenges that are commonly faced in projects. It is also anticipated that there will be a five-day workshop offered to those who are interested in obtaining formal accreditation in project management. 

A new course coming to the Centre in September focuses on Drydocking and has accreditation with the Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers (SNAME) and the Royal Institution of Naval Architects (RINA). The four-day course is provided by DM Consulting, based out of San Diego CA. IMTARC also hopes to work with Fisher Maritime Consulting Group based in New Jersey to bring Contract Management, Shipyard Management and Specification Writing courses into the Centre’s curriculum. “In the computer lab, we’re also offering Microsoft Office application courses and we’re looking at offering other specialized courses such as Sharepoint and Adobe,” says Alex Rueben, Executive Director of IMTARC.

The first pilot of the entry-level orientation course for Shipbuilding and Repair is expected to go ahead in August 2013 and will be coordinated by a consortium of colleges including BC Institute of Technology, Camosun College, Vancouver Island University and another pilot on the lower mainland. The entry level course is intended to introduce students to industrial marine operations, safe practices, environmental awareness, spill response and hazardous materials, industry terminology and structure, and to provide a foundation level knowledge of several marine industry trades to the extent that graduates can proceed in Level 1 apprenticeship streams. For those not choosing the trades the entry level course will also be suitable for those choosing to become shipyard labourers or trades helpers or to work in shipyard material management and supply organizations. The entry level course will also be a good primer for those choosing to work as technicians, technologists and engineers in shipbuilding and the repair sector.

Other courses in the development stages include Marine Estimating, Planning and Scheduling in a marine industrial environment; leadership modules including Conflict Resolution, Interpersonal Communications in the workplace; and Mentoring and Coaching in the workplace. A course on Marine Terminology is also being planned, which will be useful for new entrants and senior executives recruited into the industry. Rueben expects most planned courses will be available in the late fall and be offered at either IMTARC or at post-secondary institutions around the province.

The Centre has recently become a registered assessment agency for those who want to challenge the Shipyard Labourer credential offered by the Industry Training Authority (ITA). Additionally, IMTARC is also involved with the Coast Aboriginal Shipbuilding Alliance, a four million dollar project sponsored by the federal government’s Human Resources and Skill Development Canada working with a number of aboriginal employment societies to deliver the skills, knowledge and training to make people of aboriginal descent eligible for jobs in the shipbuilding and repair industry. The initiative is expected to help secure 201 jobs for this demographic.

On the Applied Research side, Rueben says IMTARC has contacted the National Research Council and the National Science and Engineering Research Council to find out what their criteria are for funding. “It is our intent to get industry working with post-secondary institutions to start focusing on projects relevant to the shipbuilding and repair industry,” he says. “This idea really has appeal across the country, so we’re working now with some partners out in Newfoundland and Nova Scotia to get the Navy and the Coast Guard interested in supporting a national shipbuilding research program, muchlike a research program already in place in the United States
(www.nrsp.com) that looks at new technologies, existing processes and new materials for the industry.”

While IMTARC continues expanding its curriculum, it has also expanded its staff. In mid-February, Michelle Brown, a qualified teacher, with a First Nations background and extensive experience in the shipbuilding and ship repair industry, was hired as Centre Administrator.

On the apprenticeship front, an implementation committee made up of industry employers, training providers, the ITA, IMTARC and the Resource Training Organization (RTO) will meet in late May or early June to work together on the new Marine Fitter apprenticeship pilot program, with the expectation to subsequently open both Marine Fitter and Shipwright trades up to challengers. No dates have yet been confirmed.