Interview with Susan Clarke Programs Manager at the Industry Education Council

Susan Clarke Programs Manager at the Industry-Education Council (IEC) of Hamilton shares how the organization is helping learners overcome disruptions due to COVID-19

Tell me about yourself?

I am the Programs Manager at the Industry-Education Council of Hamilton, and have been with this non-profit organization for nearly 10 years.  Much of my time is spent assisting learners (of all ages) with information to help them make appropriate choices in relation to their career paths. I also work closely with a wide variety of industries, employers and employees within Hamilton who are interested in mentoring others along their journey.

How is the Industry-Education Council adapting to COVID-19 situation?

For IEC, connecting with our partners as well as individual and business members of our local community has remained relatively unchanged thanks to phone calls, emails and other technology related means of communication. Unfortunately, we have had to temporarily close the doors to our ArcelorMittal Dofasco STEM Centre until further notice.

Our programs, workshops and services have historically been predominantly hands-on and in-person.  All of our current programming has seen the need to be renewed in an online fashion, in order to help meet the needs and demands that COVID-19 has had in our community. 

Which IEC programs have been pivoted online and how has the response been so far?

Back in April, we had to postpone our Small Business & Entrepreneurship (SBE) course as well as our Coding Bootcamp, our free adult education programs in partnership with City School by Mohawk and the Ontario Trillium Foundation.  Thankfully, we have announced that SBE will be running in an online format through Mohawk’s MyCanvas system beginning Monday, June 1, 2020.  Originally set for 25 students, we have had 35 students sign up and registered to begin with a waiting list of additional people looking to attend online learning.  Our Coding Bootcamps are moving forward with plans to move the missed course to our Winter term and continue to plan for our Fall 2020 course to begin in September with a flexible online/in-person format while decisions are made surrounding public gatherings.

How are the Hamilton Code Clubs operating during this time?

Hamilton Code Clubs (HCC) is a project of IEC and Software Hamilton funded by the Hamilton Community Foundation’s ABACUS grant.  For the past 6 years, we have run or hosted a variety of in-school clubs, showcases and special events for elementary students in grades 4-8 to introduce them to simple software programming languages with the hopes of inspiring youth to enter secondary school pathways leading to the career world of Information, Communication and Technology. 

As a result of being unable to run HCC due to school closures and physical distancing concerns, we have opted to provide teachers, parents and students with our Code At Home series featuring different free on-line resources that can be used to complete a coding project challenge.  We are looking to supplement these with pre-recorded videos where Mentors guide the viewer through the Code At Home project. 

We are also working with four Mohawk College co-op students to create an application that will allow our mentors to connect safely with students to work on predetermined projects and assignments.  Our hope is that this will help in the future whether we need to be apart due to COVID-19 or simply to make mentoring within the classroom more accessible.  We are always open to additional mentors, helpers or idea generators and welcome anyone interested in participating to connect via email at experience@iechamilton.ca or to visit our website at www.hamiltoncodeclubs.com.

We also usually host CODEfest, an end of year trip for our club members and other middle school students, at Mohawk College to further engage them in the various pathways into technology related fields. This year, our plans, like many others, were cancelled but we have determined with the help of a few friends, we will be hosting an online version this summer.

What is IEC doing to help students?

Our speaker series, employer engagement as well as our workforce development programs have all seen change due to COVID-19 as well.  We are actively reaching out to employers to determine if they would be willing to meet virtually with post-secondary access students to discuss business needs, necessary skills for their careers as well as to help answer questions related to pathways leading from education to employment.  This has also affected our secondary school students who have lost their summer co-ops and we are now assisting in locating potential virtual summer co-op positions for.