The telecommunications industry in Quebec has come together to create the International Institute of Telecommunications — a Montreal-based school for training in the telecommunications field.
“It’s pretty exciting,” commented Christine Gagnon, president and general manager of the Institute.
Expected to open its doors in September 1999, the Institute will offer supplementary training programs for existing telecom personnel in addition to supporting new academic programs.
The project, spearheaded by Bell Canada and Teleglobe Inc., involves many of Quebec’s telecommunications companies. The idea began a couple of years ago when industry members found it difficult to attract good graduates who were knowledgeable in the area of telecommunications.
“They were looking at it and saying, ‘We’ve got to do something — the industry’s got to rally around and understand the importance of attracting students to the telecom engineering field.’
“We have to work with the universities to make sure that what they teach is actually current and that the graduating students are fully prepared to move into the working world, and that there’s not a gap or vacuum between what they come out with as knowledge and what is actually used in the market place,'” said Sylvia Morin, spokesperson for Teleglobe Inc. in Montreal.
One of the reasons for this Institute, Gagnon added, is to be able to hire good, qualified employees from the Quebec area, rather than having to recruit from elsewhere, including other countries.
Founding companies of the Institute include: Bell Canada, Bell Mobility, Ericsson Communications Inc., Entourage Technology Solutions Inc., EXFO, Hewlett-Packard Informatique, Hewlett-Packard test et mesures, Le Groupe Vid