NORTHERN LIGHTS COLLEGE SIGNS TRAINING AGREEMENT

Montreal, April 29, 2010

Montréal, April 29th, 2010 – The Canadian GeoExchange Coalition (CGC) is pleased to announce a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with NorthernLightsCollege (NLC) in Dawson Creek, BC. As a result of this MOU, NLC will incorporate CGC’s curriculum into its Renewable Energy Technologies Program, which is part of the College’s Workforce Training Department. After completion of their college course and a passing grade on the CGC exams, graduates from NLC will be able to apply for their CGC accreditation as installers and designers under the CGC Global Quality GeoExchangeTM Program. To date, more than 1200 individuals in Canada have obtained their CGC accreditations and are actively involved in the geoexchange industry.

The demand for skilled graduates who understand alternative energy systems continues to climb. NLC’s Workforce Training Department offers a wide range of programs and courses designed for professional development, and geoexchange training programs offered through the department will provide graduates with standardized training and the advanced skills that are required by the industry.

“Northern Lights College is B.C.’s Energy College, and we have established ourselves as the leaders in clean energy technologies programming in British Columbia. Offering training in GeoExchange systems will be an essential part of the College’s growing clean energy program cluster,” said Howard Mayer, Dean of Business, Industry and Contract Training at NLC. “Having access to national networking and training opportunities and a standardized curriculum through the Canadian GeoExchange Coalition is an essential element of the overall package for GeoExchange programming, and will help ensure high standards of achievement are met by our graduating students.”

“I am extremely pleased to welcome NLC into the CGC national college training network’’ said Denis Tanguay, CGC President & CEO. ‘‘Training delivered through a tightly knit network of independent private trainers has never been the appropriate way to transform a market and is not the right approach to build a competent workforce. At best, it provides a short term solution for a sudden shortage of skilled workers but is certainly not a sustainable approach in the long term. Like for any other trades, the future of our industry lies in formal training by professional instructors within the educational system,’’ he added.

Five years ago, CGC made a commitment to work with Canadian colleges in order to incorporate geoexchange training into their curriculum. This growing industry-college relationship is unique in North America and throughout the World. At the time, a decision was made to challenge the traditional training model for the geoexchange industry and actively engage colleges into the CGC led market transformation initiative. Canadian industry stakeholders worked together to develop a standardized training curriculum based on Canadian design and installation conditions. This material is available to all Canadian colleges interested in pursing the CGC’s market transformation goals.

The Canadian GeoExchange™ Coalition acts as the industry catalyst to unite private and public sector stakeholders, and to expand the market for geoexchange™ technology in Canada. As the nexus of information, training, certification, industry standards and public awareness, our mandate is to work with stakeholders to build the necessary infrastructure to foster the growth of the Canadian geoexchange™ industry. For more information, visit www.geoexchange.ca

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For CGC inquiries:                                                         Sophie Martin (514) 807-7559, extension 23

For Northern Lights College inquiries:                               Bob Haugen (250) 784-7509       

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