The focus on education is producing skilled graduates, who are creating new job opportunities for those still in school
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ducation
has become a top priority for Newfoundland and Labrador in the past
decade and has spear-headed government policy for reversing the economic
downturn which followed the cod moratorium.
Minister for youth services and post-secondary education Sandra Kelly
points out: “We lost 40,000 jobs when the moratorium came. In a
province which already had a very high unemployment rate, this was devastating,
but we managed to get through it and quickly developed our economy.
And we did this by stressing the importance of education.”
Government initiatives include lower tuition fees, giving more people access to further education. “We now have one of the lowest levels of fees in the country. It keeps debt down and encourages students to stay in Newfoundland and Labrador,” says the Ms Kelly. “We also put more money into our university than any other province in Canada.”
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Memorial
University of Newfoundland
is the biggest university in Atlantic Canada. It is renowned for fostering
entrepreneurs and producing skilled graduates. They find jobs in the
resource-based economy and the growing knowledge-based sector, including
IT and marine technology.
University president, Dr Axel Meisen,
sees his role as helping to seize the opportunities in the province.
“Many of these clearly revolve around the major resource industries,
such as oil and gas, nickel, hydropower and fisheries,” he says.
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“Another
area of opportunity is the cultural sector. Newfoundlanders and Labradorians
are very creative: maybe it comes out of our need to improvise in the
harsh environment in which we work.”
In fact, Memorial has built a specialised research and development organisation
called C-Core, which focuses on working in difficult environments. “Drilling
for oil in iceberg-infested waters and rich fishing grounds poses challenges
you don’t see in Alberta, Texas or Saudi Arabia,” he says.
Other facilities include the Fisheries and Marine Institute, which boasts
North America’s largest flume tank for simulating the effects of
ocean currents. A new underwater observatory in Bonne Bay is set to
greatly enhance the environmental studies programme. The Genesis Centre
propagates and nurtures innovation and new business, while the pioneering
tele-medicine department provides education to healthcare providers
working in small communities.
“We
have outstanding facilities, which will be of interest to students overseas,”
says Dr Meisen. Indeed, the university is already a global organisation,
with a campus in Harlow, England, and a language institute on the French
island of Saint Pierre. “We are a provincial university with an
international presence,” he says.
“My vision for the future is for the university to be much more
research intensive while preserving its excellence in teaching. The
relationship between business and the university is beneficial for all
parties. We have to be relevant and valuable to people in the native
communities in Labrador as we have to meet the needs of the people in
urban St. John’s,” he adds.
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