Queen’s and St. Lawrence College have created an innovative, one-of-a-kind educational partnership that will help fill the shortfall in technology teachers for school boards across the province.

St. Lawrence College graduates with appropriate work experience in skilled trades and technology can earn their Technological Education Diploma in one year at Queen’s Faculty of Education.

Expected to start in January 2009, the Queen’s University Faculty of Education/St. Lawrence College concurrent program in technological education will help students transition from the workforce back to college and university on the path to becoming high school teachers.

“This is a step forward in our efforts to link the Faculty of Education at Queen’s to the community and its needs within the framework of our mission” says Queen’s dean of education Rosa Bruno-Jofre. “Technological education has a central place in the Faculty and I am delighted to announce the partnership with St. Lawrence College and the new program

The Conference Board of Canada estimates that Ontario will face a shortage of more than 360,000 skilled employees by 2025, mostly due to retirement of baby boomers. This demand already impacts the teaching profession in Ontario, specifically with technology teachers.

“Training teachers for careers in technological education will ensure our province continues to meet the growing need for skilled workers,” says Chris Whitaker, President and CEO, St. Lawrence College.

The concurrent program in technological education will accept students with a variety of backgrounds, depending on their individual level of post-secondary education and work experience. Laid-off workers who are journeypersons, or who have combination of five years of post-secondary technology education and work experience will be able to access the program under Ontario’s Second Career Strategy launched last year.