Making plastic fantastic once again

Image Credit: Adobe Stock/Anastasiia

AceConnex and Humber College’s Barrett Centre for Technology Innovation will be hosting “Bridging the Gap – Plastics & the Skilled Trades” on Wed., March 27, 2024. The full-day event will showcase the immense capabilities and innovations coming from Ontario’s plastics manufacturing sector as well as the vast skilled trade career opportunities available to young people in it.

Historically, Ontario manufacturers have developed world-class capabilities in plastics manufacturing while our academic institutions provided graduates to fill those jobs. However, back in 2009 after the world economic downturn, Humber College was forced to shut down its industry-leading Canadian Plastics Training Centre (CPTC). The March 27 event is seeking to rekindle interest in the program as well as the immense capabilities of the sector.

“Just like a muscle, if you don’t use it, you lose it,” said Kim Thiara, president of AceTronic Industrial Controls and Board Member of the Canadian Association of Mold Makers (CAMM). “Ontario’s immense plastic manufacturing capabilities, everything from molds to the final products, have taken decades to develop. Thanks to academic institutions like Humber College, we will ensure this manufacturing capacity remains here in Ontario for decades to come.”

The plastics manufacturing subsector in Ontario produced $4.9 billion in gross domestic product (GDP) in 2021, representing 6.1 per cent of the overall manufacturing GDP in the province. “We need to keep this industry and manufacturing capacity here and we need to keep it healthy,” said Neal Mohammed, director of the Centre for Technology Innovation. “Humber’s Canadian Plastics Training Centre was a jewel of a centre providing training to meet the needs of the plastic sector. We need the plastic industry to step up once again and come together and work with institutions like Humber to bring back training.”

The March 27 event will be divided into morning and afternoon sessions. The morning will consist of information panels discussing the growing challenges of filling job vacancies left by an ageing workforce. The afternoon will offer informative discussions to address misconceptions surrounding plastics and plastic manufacturing. Representatives from the Ontario Ministry of Labour, Immigration, Training and Skills Development, and the Ministry of Colleges and Universities will also be in attendance.

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