Blog

Finances should not be an obstacle to your career aspirations!

Metro College is committed to ensuring everyone who wants post-secondary training has access to high quality, affordable financial aid options. 

Metro College Financial Assistance Options:

• Ontario Student Assistance Program (OSAP) is the financial assistance that the Government of Ontario provides to its students for post-secondary education. The financial aid includes two components: grant and loan. It is the most popular and important financial aid in Ontario.
• Second Career Funding - Provides financial support for training individuals who have been laid-off from their job and want to update their skills to get employed in their current career or switch to a new career.
• Social Assistance Funding - Ontario Work provides the people who are on Social Assistance  with financial assistance for a training that helps them find a job.
• Canada-Ontario Job Grant (COJG) - This funding will help employers to training their employees to be more competent and competitive in their jobs.
• WSIB Training Funding - Helps those who are receiving WSIB compensation to get training and return to the workforce.
• Ontario Disability Support Program - ODSP provides funding support to individuals who have been injured or otherwise unable to continue with their current employment due to a disability.
• Tuition Payment Plans - Metro College can help ease the impact of tuition costs by arranging instalment-payment plans for students if you are not eligible for any of the above financial aids.

Are you unsure about your financial ability to attend college?
Contact Metro College today, an Admissions Advisor would be glad to help you decide on the best training program to pursue to meet your career goals and discuss with you to find out the best financial assistance you may qualify.

What is Second Career Funding?

Administered by the Government of Ontario, the Second Career Program provides funding for individuals who have been laid-off, and cannot get a new position due to a bad job market or lack of new skills.

Second Career Funding is provided to ease the burden of education costs and can be used to cover the costs of tuition, book/material fees, living allowance, transportation expenses and more!

What Programs Qualify for Second Career Funding?

All of the following programs are eligible for Second Career funding. Individual Second Career applicants have a wide range of programs to choose from:

• Accounting and Payroll Administration
• CNC & MasterCAM Technology
• Civil Engineering Design and Technology
• Cloud Computing and Application -  Advanced Diploma
• Computerized Accounting and Office Administration
• Data Science and Application -  Advanced Diploma
• ERP SAP Accounting System - Advanced Diploma
• ERP SAP Supply Chain Management
• Mechanical Engineering Design
• Network Administration
• Network and Cloud Administration
• Structural Engineering Design and Technology

How Do I Apply for Second Career Funding?

Contact a Metro College Admission Advisor! Advisors are well versed in the application process and would be glad to help you by doing a pre-assessment of your case, and providing guidance on the application.

AutoCAD

At Metro College of Technology we offer AutoCAD 2D & 3D course that can be taken as a certificate course or as a part of Mechanical, CNC, Structural and Civil Engineering diploma programs. Many positions in engineering field, such as drafters, designers, technicians and technologists, use AutoCAD for drafting and design purpose. You might have a question about what are the differences between AutoCAD 2D and 3D. Here is our answer.

• A 2D CAD system lets the user work only in the x and y axis, basically up and down, left and right. You can make objects look like 3D, similar to how you would draw on paper using various drafting tools (triangles, French curves, etc.). This type of CAD system can be relatively less expensive than its 3D counterpart, and is useful for drawings showing floor plans, elevations, and certain views of objects such as top, front, right side.
• A 3D CAD system lets the user work in the XYZ axis. Think of it as creating and working with actual material. If you create a cube in 3D and rotate it, it will still look like a cube. Objects can be created as solid models, line by line wireframes, etc. High end 3D CAD systems can be very expensive. A license can cost you easily from $3,000 to $20,000 or more, depending on how you are going to use it.

 If you are interested to take AutoCAD 2D and 3D at Metro College of Technology, please call us at 416-585-9880 to schedule your consultation and a possible trial class. Please visit AutoCAD for more information.

In this blog, we would like to talk about the civil engineering and its job market in Toronto area.

Civil engineering is a branch of capital construction, involving the construction of non-production facilities, which include: roads and highways, underground piping system, residential, office and administrative buildings for education, health and culture, housing and communal services and even catering, as well as sports facilities, shopping, entertainment and hotel complexes. Thus, civil engineering is characterized by a huge variety of areas, used materials and structures and requires constant updating of technologies. As a result the demand for civil professionals is strong as well.  Working in this industry can be rewarding. According to Indeed.ca data the year of 2021, the average annual salary for a civil engineer in Ontario is over $65,000.

The volume and pace of construction of objects in civil engineering in Toronto have been reaching all-time highs with some of the most exciting projects such as Metrolink project, Regal Paza Corporate Centre, avid Hotel, Larco Hospitality, Cadillac Fairview, Bloor Yorkville Residences, 1200 Bay Street. 

Canada Square. One Bloor East or Aura being finished over the past decade. More so, the prospects for the infrastructure design industry are favorable in 2021 and beyond.  Recently, the procedure of granting and registration of land plots for construction has been simplified in Toronto, and this is a necessary condition for the successful development of the industry. Only in the city of Toronto,  there are 5 civil projects under construction.

In 2021 the population of the GTA will reach a new height -6,255,000. This is the driving force to build stronger infrastructure in the Toronto area. The main direction of civil construction is housing construction. Providing the population with quality housing is one of the main government tasks. Focusing on the solution of this problem, Toronto forms the urban policy, which guarantees jobs with high salaries in the sector even in times of the economic downturn. These actions are gradually yielding results – the volume of housing is growing.

Another major direction for Canada is the roads and highways. As a country with very large territory and growing population, there is always need for new roads. Ontario pledged 137$ billion for infrastructure projects over the next decade aiming to create thousands of jobs in the sector. Design, among them, is going to be one of the highest-paid services.

For the last decades, computer software applications have replaced manual civil operations such as engineering drawings, calculations and designs. Professionals in civil engineering now are widely using AutoCAD 2D and 3D as well as MicroStation 2D and 3D to make engineering drawings. Microsoft Excel and Timberline are used for project estimation, while Oracle Primavera and MS Project are powerful tools that are used to plan and manage civil projects. Civil 3D and InRoads are used in the road/highway planning, engineering calculation, designing and optimization. These software packages are all used across Toronto and Ontario. They are part of the Civil Engineering Design & Technology (CEDT) curriculum at Metro College of Technology. They have been accredited by the provincial government and constantly placed on the top among the schools across in GTA in terms of employment rates.

Do you want to be involved in infrastructure or housing projects? Designing ideas for Civil Engineering with a degree may be the choice for your career. The industry requires CAD Technicians, Civil Designers, Road/highway Engineers, Civil Technologists, Municipal Technologists, Civil Project Coordinators/managers and many other professions. You can obtain not only the knowledge of the theoretical aspects of the industry, but valuable practice from professionals, who have worked in the field for decades. It is also possible to get the internships in some of the largest job providers of the province. Metro College also provides job search support which helps students with resume and cover letter preparation. The college also provides co-op service for those students who do not civil engineering background but intend to develop their career in this industry. Our students have been hired and working in the field on civil projects with some of the largest companies –IBI Group, Hatch, SNC Lanvalin, TWD, MMM, WSP, Lea Consulting, EXP, TTC, Metrolink,  Diamond Corporation, Urban Capital, Daniels Corporation, Streetcar and Woodcliffe – as qualified associates. You can check out the Civil Engineering courses for more details.