The City of Kitchener and Conestoga will collaborate to create more learning opportunities that fuel the talent pipeline to meet the needs of the growing creative economy.
Announced May 27, the initiative will expand the college's School of Creative Industries with a new state-of-the-art campus in downtown Kitchener to prepare artists, entrepreneurs and technicians to drive industry growth. The expansion supports the city's Make It Kitchener 2.0 economic strategy, helping address the skills shortage by investing in the people, talent and job creation necessary to make creative industries thrive in the community.
"We are delighted to be working with the City of Kitchener to expand our School of Creative Industries and develop the talent that will fuel growth in the local creative economy," said Conestoga President John Tibbits. "We look forward to our work together to help realize the city's vision for the future of our dynamic community."
The expansion is expected to double Conestoga's creative industries program offerings with learning spaces to support in-demand fields, including illustration, digital product design, game-art, artificial intelligence design, special effects, virtual reality merchandising, and motion graphics.
"By building our capacity and footprint, we will attract, train and nurture world-class talent that will help the City of Kitchener become a global leader in creative industries," said Pejman Salehi, executive dean, School of Creative Industries. "They will be the leaders of the future, armed with the skills and knowledge to embark on innovative ventures that will transform our community."
The new Conestoga Creative Industries campus will be in addition to the college's Kitchener-Downtown campus, which opened January 2020 inside Market Square, attracting more students to the downtown core to further contribute to the city's diversity and cultural vibrancy while supporting the local ecosystem.
"Downtown Kitchener is an ideal ecosystem for future leaders in creative industries," said Ward 10 Councillor Sarah Marsh. "I look forward to seeing what impact entrepreneurial graduating students will have on downtown and our broader Kitchener community."
For more information, read the full release.
Conestoga's School of Creative Industries offers dynamic programs that span all aspects of media, communication and design. Programs provide the knowledge and skills needed for today's exciting and growing career market with a mix of learning experiences that provide hands-on, real-life experiences and opportunities to work with professional equipment and software and community-based clients.