An open house last week gave area residents their first peek at the new network and systems administrator diploma program being offered in Morden by the Manitoba Institute of Trades and Technology (MITT).
The program launching this fall will operate in space in a newly-renovated part of Boundary Trails Place.
“It’s a beautiful space, as you can see. It’s been about a year to get here,” shared MITT program manager Jared Miskimmin. “When we first took a tour of this place, it was completely gutted. So there was absolutely nothing in here, and it was transformed mostly with the help of the City of Morden to generate the space that you see here today.”
They already have 11 students signed up, and they’re raring to go.
“I think a lot of people are just really excited about the opportunity that there’s a post-secondary offering here in Morden where they don’t have to drive into the city,” Miskimmin said. “One of the big things that they’re excited about is that they can do their education right here in their own backyard.”
Graduates of the 16-month program will enter the workforce with the skills they need for careers in IT infrastructure design and support. In addition to plenty of hands-on learning, the program also includes a 15-week practicuum where students will be placed in Morden-Winkler area businesses.
“Companies like Valley Fiber have agreed to work with us, and we’re hoping to send students there to have their on-the-job experience,” Miskimmin said.
Heading up the program is instructor Victor Chavez, who says students will hit the ground running when classes begin in early September.
“First, they’re going to start with the IT fundamentals, network fundamentals, and then we move to programming. We’re going to do switching, networking, all the routing.”
Students will have the opportunity to train with a variety of different cutting-edge devices, Chavez noted, learning how to work both on their own and as part of a larger IT team.
“And then when they finish that, they go to their practicuum,” he said. “We have connections with the companies … connections for [IT] networking, for security, and also some of those positions are for help desks, but they’re going to use all the content in this program in those positions.”
It was at the request of local businesses that this program came to Morden in the first place, shared Jason Dyck, the community’s economic development officer. The City of Morden did a community roundtable a few years ago that identified the growing need for IT professionals across the region. City council then put out a call for potential post-secondary programs to meet that demand.
“This is something that city council has strongly backed and, with support from Mayor [Nancy] Penner and the administration, we have a strategic focus on supporting skill and talent development in our area,” Dyck said. “We want to see our youth stay in the Pembina Valley and not be forced to go to urban centres for their education when they would love to live and raise their families here.
“Ultimately this program was selected because of the employable skill sets that it teaches and the jobs that are behind it,” he explained, noting it’s in line with other programs recently brought to the area due to demand, including Assiniboine Community College’s licensed practical nursing and certified childcare assistant programs. “This is really the cherry on top. It’s one that we hope to see offered year after year and hopefully grow the presence of post-secondary options in the region, retain our youth, and support our employers.”
For Saif Qureshi, the close-to-home nature of the program was a big draw.
“I’ve always wanted to learn more about technology and get a sense of how technology works in detail, in depth,” he said. “The biggest challenge I had was having to go to Winnipeg for that.”
The Mordenite currently works in tech support for Valley Fiber. He’s eager to upgrade his skills and improve his career prospects.
“I really want to increase [those skills] much, much more,” he said. “Learn how to help startups or small businesses or even bigger businesses with their technology.”
For more details about MITT’s network and systems administrator diploma program, head to MITT.ca/network-admin-morden/.
