What the media is saying:

Centre Offers Job Training Programs
ROSEMOUNT GETS YOU ONE STEP
CLOSER TO THE WORKPLACE

By Egbert Gaye

Twenty-eight year old Jerry Otah has manned more than his share of machines working on different types of production lines in factories here and in his native Nigeria. About a year and a half ago he decided to break the routine.

“I knew how to operate so many different types of machines but didn’t really know how they worked. I wanted to learn everything about these machines and how to repair them.”

That’s why Otah enrolled in the Automated Systems in Electro-mechanics program at Rosemount Technology Centre, Quebec’s largest English technical vocational school.

Otah is one of about 850 students at the institution located in the East End of Montreal.

Each has his or her own reason for being there, but most of them leave with skills that place them in high demand in many of the province’s leading industries.

“More and more, Rosemount is finding it increasingly difficult to meet industry needs for trained workers in areas such as digital layout and printing, cabinet-making, furniture finishing and industrial drafting (CAD),” says Centre director, Marzia Michielli. “And that is a good thing for our students.”

She says other programs like automated system in electromechanics, machining techniques and computer graphics, all have over 80% placement rates for students.

These statistics have special relevance for our community at a time when many of our young men and women stagnate in the ranks of the unemployed and the under-employed.

“Rosemount now feeds hundreds of small and medium-sized businesses, in the Montreal area in industries such as airline, aerospace, automotive, printing and desktop publishing,” says Ms. Michielli, who, in more than a decade as principal, has seen hundreds of graduates convert skills learned at Rosemount into rewarding careers.

That is especially true, these days, for students in the cabinet making and furniture finishing programs who are now finding quick employment fitting interiors of private jets and small airplanes.

Program coordinator Robert DiFabio says students come from all type of backgrounds and education levels and leave Rosemount as craftsmen, highly skilled in all aspects of fine woodwork.

“Currently, we are in partnership with about two hundred companies around the Montreal area and many of them are eager to hire our students as soon as they complete the programs.”

“And because students can choose to open their own business, furniture finishing and cabinet making has become a very popular choice for many people seeking a change of career,” says Mr. DiFabio.

An increasing number of candidates are also choosing the machining techniques program and entering a field that has been revolutionized by the computerization of various aspects of the old machine shop trade.

Vere [Belle], a 12-year veteran at Rosemount who made the move from private sector, is the head of the department.

And he showed off a few state of the art machines that are now part of the arsenal of machines that build parts for other machines.

“Many of our graduates leave here and go straight into jobs at places like Pratt & Whitney, Bombardier and in the automobile industry. And we make sure they have the skills and the exposure to the most up-to-date techniques to do their job.”

Siraj Ansari, who is in the final phase of his training in Machining Techni[ques] told the CONTACT that he chose the program because he is looking for stability and a career as a machinist promises a good job and decent wage.

“I’ve done a little of everything in the past so I’ve decided to train in a field where I can find a job,” he said.

So far, the experience here at Rosemount has been excellent; the atmosphere is good for learning and the teachers are very professional.”

[Belle] says by the time Ansari completes the program he will master all the basics in machining, which includes cutting drilling and turning.

He will also be able to read blueprints and plans jobs, understand the composition of metals and use the most modern equipment with three-dimensional software.

“In other words he will be prepared for the most sophisticated machining environment.”

Also, Ansari recently joined with other Rosemount students and faculty and put his skills to the test, constructing a robot, which finished a respectable eighth place in Robotic competition at College Regina Assumpta.

The robot, named Bridge-it was a multi-disciplinary project in which students from the centre’s various programs designed and built a fully functioning Robot, which was entered into the competition along with its accompanying journal and video documentation.

The journal, which was coordinated by Jeanine Carter of the computer graphic department, earned second place in the competition.

Daniel Takhee went into the Robotic project eager to bring the skills he learned in the industrial drafting (CAD) program in helping to design the Bridge-it.

At the time he told Community Contact that “it was exciting to be part of a such challenging project that involved so many dimensions of technology.”

Like other students in the program, Ansari will leave Rosemount with the capabilities to assist engineers in various designs by producing drawings using conventional drafting instruments or the assistance of computers.

Program coordinator Atif Messiha says “almost every manufacturing plant has an engineer and each of them needs a drafts-person who can provide detail and technical drawings to reflect the engineers’ ideas.”

Because of the similarity between the learning environment at Rosemount and industry, students are always on the cusp of new trends in technology and in the workplace.

Centre director Michielli says it is also a place where the new demographic reality of Montreal is reflected.

“We have students from almost every nationality attending Rosemount and this diversity helps them in the workplace in the future.”

Julia Ross, a Russian immigrant, enrolled in computer graphics and design echoes Ms. Michielli: “it is my first exposure to so many different cultures and I find it exciting and stimulating.”

All the programs at Rosemount Technology Centre are free and eligible students can also access government loans and bursaries.

Ms. Michielli advises those who are contemplating a vocational career to visit the school and sit in on some of the classes.

“It might just change your life for the better.”

Rosemount Technology Centre (514) 376-4725

In the last issue of Montreal Community Contact (February 24, @006) in an article on Rosemount Technology we met a dedicated and long-serving instructor, Mr. Vere Belle, whom we identified as Mr. Vere Rowe.

The calls came flooding in from Montrealers who know the two gentlemen.

Yes it was an unfortunate error on our part and we’re deeply sorry for it.

Mr. Belle is program coordinator in the Machining Techniques department at Rosemount Technology. He has been with the institution for 12 years after a long and illustrious career in the private sector with companies such as Dominion Bridge and others.

Mr. Bell received his initial training in the field in his native Barbados and through training and acquired experience he elevated to a highly respected professional and educator.

Montreal Community CONTACT regrets the error.