Cambrian College offers new chemical engineering technician program

Next month, Cambrian College in Sudbury will be offering a chemical engineering technician program with hopes of helping meet the demand for skilled workers in the field.

Cambrian College is now accepting applications for the two-year chemical engineering technician program.

Staff at the college say students will learn a variety of industry-standard practices throughout the two years.

“Students will get a lot technical experience; they’re in labs often, they often have a lot of opportunities to work with our applied research and when they come to the college,” said Kim Crane, chair of Cambrian’s School of Engineering Technology.

“They also have opportunities for work-integrated learning opportunities, working with our industry partners in either summer employment or placement opportunities later on.”

There is currently a three-year Chemical Engineering Technology Advanced Diploma program that is offered at the college, but Crane says having this new two-year option provides students with more flexibility when it comes to their careers and education.

She says there is a wide variety of careers students can apply for once they have received their diploma.

“They can be in research, mineral processing, they can work in pharmaceuticals, in the mining industry, the opportunities are endless,” said Crane.

Staff with the school say there is a high demand for this program, and say those involved in the industry have predicted a nine per cent increase in demand for chemical engineering technicians.

“As a college we were informed that there is a high demand for technicians. Our current program is for technologists so we quickly reviewed our program to see if we can accommodate our industry partners who are looking for technicians,” said Crane.

“So, what we’ve done is we’ve ensured that there are lots of hands-on in the first two years so that people can exit the program and go into the work force.”

Danika Turgeon is heading into her third year of Chemical Engineering Technology program at Cambrian College.

She says she highly recommends the program and says she’s learned a lot over the past two years.

“I’ve always loved the idea of this program because it’s very lab-based. So, you do analytical chemistry labs; you’ll do labs in physics, and instrumentation,” said Turgeon.

“Staff here at Cambrian are very helpful and they have the open door policy. We have a lot of instruments that the students are able to use also, like the ICP-GC.”

Approximately 30 students will be accepted into this program, and it will officially begin in September.