CTS Canadian Career College opens in former St. John Catholic School

Sault adult learners wishing to fast track their careers now have another option in CTS Canadian Career College’s Sault campus.

Though the school has had a presence in the Sault and area for the past three years, college officials will be holding the official opening of the institution’s Sault campus in the refurbished former St. John Catholic School at 100 Churchill Ave. between 12 and 1 p.m. Friday.  

The college, which has been in operation for 35 years, is headquartered in North Bay, the Sault being the site of its seventh (and newest) campus.

“We’ve actually been in Sault Ste. Marie for three years, in a partnership with Garden River First Nation, and only with our paramedic program,” said Carlos Carvalho, CTS Canadian Career College president and CEO, speaking to SooToday.

“Now, we officially have roots, with bricks and mortar, after we bought the old St. John elementary school. It really worked out good for us.”

“We are all about need,” Carvalho said.

“Whatever industry needs trained workers, we want to be there and in constant contact with labour needs. When the North Bay Regional Health Centre needed more personal support workers (PSWs) they came to us to train and recruit.”

“(In contrast), in North Bay there was a need to cut back on Police Foundations, so we cut back on that. It’s not all just about producing just because we have clients. It’s about being responsible, to meet the labour needs in the communities we serve,” Carvalho said.

In the Sault, Carvalho said CTS Canadian Career College will serve the need for paramedics, addictions and mental health workers, personal support workers, and business grads (with a paralegal program to be possibly added at a future date).

While the official ribbon cutting will take place Friday, Carvalho said the organization has been operating at the former St. John school since September, 2018.

“We bought it in May 2018. We had to refurbish it, but we’ve done a transformation.”

The difference between an institution such as a CTS Canadian Career College campus and a community college, Carvalho said, is a fast tracked, focused concentration on a program of study.

“If you’re an adult student, and you’re married, and you really want to get into a career, you want to do it as fast as possible. There’s no frosh week or reading week. A student in a paramedic program at a community college will go for a two year program. We have the same number of program hours, but it’s 25 hours a week, and the students are here all day, getting it done.”

The next intake for CTS Canadian Career College’s paramedic program, Carvalho said, will be in January, its students finishing in February 2021.

“It’s practice, practice, practice all the time. We even built an ambulance indoors, they do the stairlift all the time, and run through a lot of scenarios,” Carvalho said.

Carvalho said 45 students are currently enrolled throughout all the Sault campus programs, those students having started in September of this year.