College partnership may bring more jobs for students

(BELLEVILLE, Ont. 06/24/11) Loyalist College announcces a partnership with three local businesses on Friday. Front Row l to r: Front Row l to r: Graeme McRae, President, Chairman & Ceo, Bioniche Life Sciences Inc.; Lindsay Walker, Research and Communications Consultant, Turtle Island Recycling Corp.; Adam Richardson, President, N2 Towers Inc. Back Row l to r: Professor Kari Kramp, Coordinator, Biosciences, Taryl Kramp, representing Daryl Kramp, MP Prince Edward-Hastings; Professor Chuck Barsony, Coordinator, Construction Renovation Techniques, Maureen Piercy, President, Loyalist College Photo by Jennifer Bowman

By Jennifer Bowman

A partnership between Loyalist College and three major businesses is intended give students hands-on experience and more job opportunities.

Loyalist College announced it will be partnering with BioNiche, a local pharmaceutical company; N2Towers, a local fire suppression company; and Turtle Island Recycling, a recycling company in Toronto.

This follows a $155,000 grant by the provincial government in 2010 for the college to partner with small and mid-sized businesses in southern Ontario to work on applied research, engineering design, technology development, product testing, and certification.

“Our Loyalist students have a leg up because they can say they’ve been directly involved with business and industry working on these kinds of productive partnership,” said Maureen Piercy, president of Loyalist College.

Students already have their hands in the partnership. Construction students built a 10’ x 10’ square box for N2 Towers. The box will be used to test a fire retardant made of 100 per cent nitrogen for national certification. According to the company’s president, Adam Richardson, the retardant can put out fires in one-tenth of a second. The retardant is already used in other countries, but needs to be tested for use in Canada and the U.S.

There’s an opportunity to train and hire students in the company as more jobs become available, said Richardson.

Costs for the testing will be covered by the federal funding, said Richardson.

Piercy said it’s a win-win situation.

“We can’t think of a better way to reinforce what they’re learning in the classroom than to be a member of a team that’s developing one of these exciting projects,” said Piercy.

Students who will be involved in the projects will be those studying biosciences, environmental studies, and biotechnology.

The details haven’t been established yet, but Piercy said the plan is to have the programs running by fall.