By Tanya Alexander
An exciting opportunity for partnership is on the horizon for CNA with the country of Wales in the UK. A delegation visited the college March 23 – April 2 from Welsh institution, Pembrokeshire College, to explore CNA’s facilities and identify opportunities for collaboration.
The initiative stems from a Memorandum of Understanding that was signed between Global Wales and Colleges and Institutes Canada (CICan) in April 2023, with the intent of increasing collaboration, knowledge sharing, and student/faculty exchange between Canadian and Welsh colleges. CNA followed up that MOU in December 2023 with a visit to Wales to learn about their colleges, with a particular focus on how they are responding and adapting to the Net Zero Economy with a move towards wind energy and green hydrogen production. The visit was extremely valuable and has led to further collaboration, such as this recent visit from Pembrokeshire.
“We are here to establish how you are developing training for new energies,” said Arwyn Williams, Head of Faculty for Engineering, Computing & Higher Education at Pembrokeshire. “We have very similar projects in Wales but we’re probably about 10 years behind you – for example, with installation of wind turbines – but we’re moving at such a fast pace, we’re hoping to work together on driving training in renewables.”
The group started their campus tour at Bay St. George, where they viewed wind turbine technician space along with CNA’s Centre for Heavy Equipment and Transportation Technology. Then a visit to the Bake Shop at the Fowlow Building, with a demonstration highlighting the customized environment for the Baking and Pastry Arts program. The group then attended a presentation by World Energy GH2 and visited their community centre to learn more about the wind and hydrogen project in that part of the province.
The next stop was Corner Brook, with a tour of the facilities with a focus on our Hydrogen Technician Program, skilled trades, agriculture and forestry. They also met with the NL Workforce Innovation Centre and finished the day with a tour of the Power Engineering Lab where the hydrogen program is delivered.
The following two days were spent in St. John’s and included a visit to Ridge Road campus and the Brinton Building for Television and Film. They had an opportunity to also meet with industry representatives and tour the Hyperspectral and Geospatial labs at Topsail Road as well as a visit to the simulation centers at Marine Institute.
Williams said, “There is a great deal of innovation and significant investment at CNA – and your applied research facility is incredible.”
They continued with a tour of the Advanced Manufacturing Centre at Prince Philip Drive campus and took in a
presentation from Continuous and Customized Learning regarding Women in Trades. Culinary Management students prepared an incredible lunch for the delegation.
On Monday, April 1, they drove to Placentia for a tour of the Port of Argentia and a tour of the Placentia campus for their last official day of tours and meetings.
“We’ve had an amazing tour of your facilities!” said Williams, “You’ve all been so very welcoming.”
Pembrokeshire College
With a mission to pursue excellence, empower individuals and develop the future workforce, Pembrokeshire College is a dynamic and high-quality provider of further, higher and work-based education and training. They have some 2,000 full-time and 13,000 part-time learners and apprentices and employ over 500 staff.
They offer comprehensive academic and vocational programming that parallels many of CNA’s curriculum areas, including the priority sectors of Health and Care, Engineering, Construction, Food and Farming, Life Science, Information Communication & Technology, Finance, Tourism, Hospitality, Catering and Creative Arts.
And like CNA, they thrive on educational and industry partnerships at home and abroad, with curriculum that is recognized internationally. Indeed, there are a great many similarities between Pembrokeshire and CNA, including training in oil and gas, industry outreach and institutional partnerships, and now, a focus on clean energy. This partnership holds mutually-beneficial opportunities for students and faculty to expand their horizons and broaden their experience.
“We see exchange opportunities with CNA – for example with CNA’s Television and Film programs – we could bring our Media students over to experience the innovative, sustainable infrastructure and the modern equipment,” Williams said.
But there’s more, he added, “It’s not necessarily the buildings and facilities that draws us here – it’s the people and the passion we are seeing everywhere we’ve visited throughout CNA. The calibre of what we’re seeing and the passion… it’s inspiring!”
Tanya Alexander is the Communications Specialist for CNA’s Academics Division. A two-time graduate of CNA (Journalism and Applied Music), Tanya is an award-winning journalist, editor and communicator. She holds the global CMP® designation from the International Association of Business Communicators and the national CCIP™ designation from the Canadian Centre for Diversity and Inclusion.
