UBC, KPU expand tech training with province investment

Feb. 13, 2018 – An investment from the British Columbia government will create additional spaces for manufacturing related programs at The University of British Columbia (UBC) and Kwantlen Polytechnic University (KPU).

In total, British Columbia will add about 2,900 tech-related spaces that are expected to result in 1,000 additional grads per year by 2023. The investment will go toward new and expanded programs at the British Columbia Institute of Technology and Simon Fraser University in addition to UBC and KPU.

At UBC, the funding will help support a planned manufacturing engineering program for students aspiring to careers in aerospace and advanced manufacturing. Roughly 269 undergraduate spaces will be created for the computer science and manufacturing engineering programs at the Vancouver campus.

Meanwhile, 40 additional spaces in a mechatronics and advanced manufacturing-technology diploma will be created at Kwantlen Polytechnic University (KPU).

Start-up funding for this year totals $4.4 million and is expected to increase to $42 million, according to a press statement from the government.

“We’re grateful for this investment, which enables UBC to educate more students from B.C. and across Canada to deepen the talent pool for data scientists, software developers, biomedical researchers, and manufacturing innovators in B.C. companies,” said UBC president Santa J. Ono.