News Article

After massive layoffs at the helicopter plant he worked for in Gander as a Computer Numerical Control operator, Gordon Marshall decided it was time for a career change.
 
The 31-year-old Corner Brook native was interested in the engineering field, but it wasn’t until he had thoroughly researched his options that he knew exactly what he wanted to do.
 
Gordon used Career Search 2008 to research success rates for graduates of various programs from post-secondary institutions within Newfoundland and Labrador. One program, and one institution, stood out to him – the Electronics Engineering Technology (EET) program at College of the North Atlantic (CNA).
 
“It talked about the different hiring rates, average pay and where the people were working,” said Gordon. “My interest has always been in technology and engineering so I looked at Electronics Engineering and it had something like an 89 per cent hiring rate within the first three months of graduating, and I think about 60 per cent of students were being hired in Newfoundland, so that was big for me because I was ready to start a family.”
 
Within a month of being laid off from his job he was enrolled in the EET program.
 
“It was pretty quick. The extremely low tuition ($726 per semester) is always nice because I had gone to university and ran up about $30,000 in student loans in two and a half years so I didn’t want to make that hole any deeper.”
 
After being out of a classroom environment for a number of years, he was a little apprehensive about returning.
 
“I had been out of school for nine years at that point and was afraid I wouldn’t be able to do it anymore.” He said. “I was always an honour student, but being away from it for so long, I was very nervous especially since I was going in to a technology program. All my classmates were 10 years younger than me, so that made me nervous as well, but I found it also made me a lot more focused because I was older and I had a goal.”
 
While he had the opportunity to transfer credits from his time at university, Gordon wanted to redo every course in the program.
 
“I was so nervous about going back to school after so long that I wanted to start from scratch to make sure I was getting everything. I think that’s kind of what helped me too because it allowed me to make a strong base in the first year.”
 
Gordon completed the common first year of the engineering technology at Gander campus and transferred to Corner Brook for the final two years.
 
“In both places I thought they had excellent instructors. It was very different from what I was used to at university. I found they were a lot more approachable – they had no problem during their dinner hour, sitting down and going over something with you if you had any questions,” he said.
 
“The program is structured very well. It starts you off with general  courses so that was good for me being a mature student coming back because I wanted to see something I was a bit familiar with rather than diving in to something completely unknown. The second year is when they really stepped up the difficultly level, but I found I was able to handle it because of the strong work ethic and time management skills I built in the first year.”
 
With a child on the way, Gordon wanted to ensure he got the most from the program. When his classmates would go out on a weeknight, Gordon could be found home – studying. That dedication prompted him to become a peer tutor during his final two years of the program and netted him the President’s Medal and the Governor General’s Award for having achieving the highest marks in EET.
 
“I had a classmate who, before I started tutoring him, was averaging test scores of about 30 per cent, but by the end he was getting 70s, and in the final year he managed to pull off a couple of 80s. We were both pretty proud over that. We’re both working for the same company now – the two of us were hired in our third year before we even graduated.”
 
He is very enthusiastic about the program and says he would recommend it “10 times over” to anyone who is interested in a rewarding career.
 
“I mean the hiring rate alone – our entire class was hired before we graduated. I had employers sending me emails asking for my resume. It’s a very good program and you can’t ask for better instructors in my opinion. CNA instructors are more personable and they are knowledgeable, especially Julian Edwards.”
 
Gordon had five job offers before he graduated from the program earlier this year.
 
“I didn’t even have to look for a job. Bell hired me in school, they came and did an interview right in the classroom,” Gordon continues. “They actually told me in the interview that people from my program are their bread and butter – that was his exact words. He said to me in the interview, ‘we love you guys coming out of this program – you are our bread and butter.’  And they really try to keep us.”
 
Gordon has already received a promotion at work and has transferred from Corner Brook to Stephenville where his wife is employed at, coincidentally, CNA. He says he is looking forward to a satisfying career – one for which he feels his education prepared him well.
 
“The equipment we used at CNA is the same as I am using right now so I didn’t have any shock when I came to work. They do a really good job of covering all the different pieces of equipment,” he says.
 
“Trouble shooting is what I do and that’s what that program focuses on. Your entire third year is based on electronics trouble shooting and I would say about 80 per cent of my workload is trouble shooting so anyone who likes facing those kinds of problems, like trying to fix things, that’s what the program is all about.”
 
 
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Media Contact:
 
Glenda McCarthy
Public Relations Assistant
College of the North Atlantic
709.643.6408
glenda.mccarthy@cna.nl.ca