Education, training awaits current and returning Islanders

The Island labour market is growing like never before, and PEI higher education institutions have tailored their training accordingly. Holland College is training (and retraining) workers for the ever-expanding – and higher paying – industries of bioscience, aerospace, agriculture, and information technology.

“Our math and physics enrolments have quadrupled in the last three years with people preparing to enroll in University of Prince Edward Island’s new engineering school,” said Sandy MacDonald, Holland College’s director of education services and programs.

“We are training people in bioscience and technology programs, and our adult education programs are filled with people coming to upgrade their biology and chemistry marks so they can move into those industries.”

MacDonald says they’re seeing more and more 'labour churn,' which is when people, who are working full time, take professional training so they can get better-paying jobs.

“We’re seeing some repatriation,” he said. “We have this in mind when we are marketing our programs. People might not realize they can enroll in a training program with the university or college and then go right back into the labour market.”

MacDonald is a repatriate himself. The Charlottetown native studied and worked in Newfoundland, Alberta, and Quebec before settling back on Prince Edward Island. He says the Island has never been a better place to live, with so much choice in restaurants, cultural opportunities, music, theatre, and museums.

“Everything you would have access to in a larger centre is here now.”