It’s graduation day at the Ottawa Mission as students from a job training program celebrate learning the skills needed to keep a building running in top shape. On Tuesday, The Ottawa Mission celebrated the graduation of the second cohort of students from its recently launched Maintenance Services Training Program (MSTP), with a goal of finding work as a maintenance person or building superintendent. The free, work-based learning teaches a variety of skills. “Anything that a building superintendent would normally, take care of,” says The Ottawa Mission’s Maintenance Manager, Andy Higgs. “These students will learn how to use equipment, power tools, hand tools, along with all the other trade related stuff.” According to the Mission, all nine graduates are employed. “This is how you end homelessness,” says Ottawa Mission CEO Peter Tilley. “You take somebody who’s been underemployed or unemployed, you give them a four-month training program—and the beauty of this program is that when they graduate, they graduate into housing along with an income to support themselves.” Hakim Lubwama graduated and has already finding employment as a building superintendent. “Without the skills that I have gotten from the program, there is no way I would’ve gotten the job,” he says. Lubwama says after moving to Canada from Uganda, he had a tough time getting the right doors to open. “I graduated back home as a civil engineer. But finding a job in Canada was really, really hard,” he says. “Even with all this, I always needed the Canadian experience, which I didn’t have for sure.” Willis Kigenyi graduated from the first cohort last year. “This has given me a career,” he says. He’s now employed as a superintendent, taking care of a number of properties. “Just trying to make our contribution to society, to make someone enjoy their life. Because home is home is life.” Recruitment for the next class of the program will begin later this winter, as the Mission looks to provide even more people with “work-based learning that transforms lives.”
