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News/Media

For Immediate Release

July 20, 2005

New Industry-Education Partnership Program Provides Professional Career Opportunity for 20 Local Youth!

Burlington, ON - The Centre for Skills Development & Training (The Centre), in partnership with Martinrea International Inc. (Martinrea), is proud to announce the launch of an exciting, new and unique career opportunity for youth: The Martinrea Tool & Die Making Pre-Apprenticeship Training Program.

This new, fee-based, pre-apprenticeship program, scheduled to begin on September 19, 2005 and which represents the most recent in a series of collaborative industry and education partnerships formed by The Centre, provides 20 youth (targeted to be primarily between the ages of 18 and 25) with an opportunity to train for rewarding pre-apprenticeship positions in the Tool & Die making field.

What makes this program unique, however, is that where other partnership programs may include a co-op or even a paid work placement, this program goes one step further by providing successful graduates with an offer of employment in an apprenticeship track tool & die making position at Martinrea International Inc.

“We're very excited about the opportunity that this program represents,” says Tom Logan, Manager of Trades and Technology at The Centre. “Not only will these candidates get high quality training, they'll also get the opportunity to walk right into a career track position with a large multi-national corporation that has made an upfront commitment to their longer term success. It really is an exceptional opportunity.”

Based on a model developed by The Centre and customized by Martinrea to meet the unique characteristics of its operation, the program consists of 14 weeks of in-class and hands-on training at The Centre and 9 weeks of monitored and paid work placement at Martinrea divisions. In addition to customizing the training, providing the paid work placement and providing employment opportunities for the successful graduates, Martinrea is also contributing $20,000 to help offset some of the program's costs.

“We’re very proud to be partnering with The Centre on this program,” says Armando Pagliari, Vice-President of Human Resources with Martinrea. “As a company that believes very strongly in the importance of providing effective training opportunities as a means of encouraging employees to reach their career goals and to grow within the company, we see this program as an excellent investment in our own workforce development and are looking forward to welcoming these new graduates into the Martinrea family.”

The Centre for Skills Development & Training is a leading provider of quality career and workforce development programs, products and services specializing in Pre-Apprenticeship Trades and Technology, Career Planning and Development and Language Skills and Academic Upgrading.