Conestoga College Institute of Technology and Advanced Learning will host the annual general meeting and national conference of Polytechnics Canada on May 10-11 at its Doon campus in Kitchener.
Polytechnics Canada is a national association of nine outstanding polytechnic colleges from Ontario, Alberta and British Columbia. Members include British Columbia Institute of Technology, Southern Alberta Institute of Technology, Olds College, Conestoga, Algonquin College, George Brown College, Sheridan College, Humber College and Seneca College.
All nine members of the association are degree-granting and industry-responsive post-secondary education institutions committed to education, training, and applied research for industry. Ensuring that graduates find employment as highly qualified workers in the industry sector of their choice is a paramount motivation.
Conference sessions will deal with national post-secondary needs and prospects in areas such as: research for business and industry, leading to commercialization; increasing opportunities for international students in Canada; creating smooth college-university credit transfer systems; and selling the benefits of polytechnic education at home and abroad.
Monday, May 10 features business meetings involving presidents of the participating colleges and the various committees of Polytechnics Canada. There will be a conference dinner in Cambridge that evening.
Tuesday's program will feature keynote addresses by Preston Manning, President and CEO of the Manning Centre for Building Democracy, and by the Hon. Gary Goodyear, Minister of State for the Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario. The day's agenda also features panel discussions on the vital part polytechnics can and do play in regional and national economic development.
More than 150 delegates and guests are expected for the conference.