Semi Trailers Become Mobile College Classrooms

[Jonathan Whatley]

Mohawk College has received $4 million in federal funding for a second mobile classroom that will be used to introduce free skilled trades training to people who face barriers getting into those trades… “It’s state-of-the-art instructional space,” [dean Jim] Vanderveken said. “It can train individuals in welding, carpentry, plumbing, electrical…” The portable 46 metre (53 feet) long classroom has space for up to 24 students at a time. That works out to about 150 students a year and a second trailer should boost that to 250, Vanderveken said.

Mohawk started using the portable classroom two years ago, as part of its City School program to give more women, Indigenous peoples, new Canadians and people with disabilities a taste of skilled trades training… [Vanderveken] noted the trailer has visited a few communities around Hamilton over the past two years… Vanderveken said the mobile classroom is parked in a community for three months and students can earn two college credits at no charge.

An American story published early last year:

With icy road conditions recently closing several institutions, this may not be the best time to report on a college training center that has gone mobile and hit the road. However, it’s an interesting development and may be of particular import to colleges in rural areas, which often have difficulty launching and maintaining workforce training programs that require expensive equipment.

A suburban Chicago community college will receive a federal grant worth about $940,000 [for about half of the cost of the trailers] to set up a job training center in two semi-truck trailers, reports the San Francisco Chronicle.

Prairie State College will use U.S. Commerce Department money to buy two 53-foot-long trailers and outfit them with equipment to teach welding and machining skills. Officials say the school will provide training at area manufacturing businesses and in communities where jobs and access to training are scarce…

With a little imagination, one can picture, for instance, mobile chemistry, nursing, or biology laboratories traveling to different sites on different days of the week… We are already familiar with mobile libraries, which is another way to share scarce resources.

Mohawk College gets funding for second mobile classroom (Mark Newman, Hamilton Mountain News, May 17 2019)
College on Wheels (TCCTA blog post, January 18 2018)