Destination Hamilton: Education City
[img_inline align=”right” src=”http://padnws01.mcmaster.ca/images/ed_city_sm.jpg” caption=”Members of Hamilton’s seven key learning institutions, pictured back row, from left, McMaster President Peter George; Marcel Castura, director, Hamilton-Wentworth Catholic District School Board; MaryLynne West-Moines, president, Mohawk College; Tom Matthews, headmaster, Hillfield Strathallan College; Christopher Spence, director, Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board; Jim Campbell, general manager of Columbia International College. Pictured front row, from left, Richard Allen, executive director, Industry-Education Council of Hamilton; Hamilton mayor Larry Di Ianni; and Justin Cooper, president, Redeemer University College. Photo credit: Chantall Van Raay. Click here for FULL Size.”]McMaster has joined a new multi-year collaborative marketing plan that aims to make Hamilton known as an “education city”.
Through the three-year plan, local institutions will work together, and in co-operation with a range of public and private sector partners, to promote Hamilton's learning system as an advantage for the City as it competes for new companies and business development.
“The Education City initiative is going to bring a lot more attention to Hamilton as a destination for new businesses and I hope for a new influx in the population of the city,” says McMaster President Peter George, who knows from experience that collaborations work. “Our experience working collaboratively with Mohawk College, for example, has allowed us to produce graduates that employers are eager to hire.”
The plan will hit key markets in each year. In the first year, it will help the community understand and take pride in Hamilton's capacity as an education city. In the second year, it will encourage people outside Hamilton to consider the City's learning advantages and make the community a destination for students, faculty and knowledge dependent businesses. In the third year, it will promote Hamilton as an international education destination and a player in a bi-national learning community that spans the Greater Golden Horseshoe into the Great Lakes States.
Announced Monday at McMaster's President's Residence, the plan was formally delivered to Hamilton mayor Larry Di Ianni. The Education City initiative is just one of the results from the Mayor's Roundtable of Education and the Hamilton Economy, which was held last year. The plan was jointly developed by the City's seven key learning institutions, including McMaster, Mohawk College of Applied Arts and Technology, Hamilton-Wentworth Catholic District School Board, Columbia International College, Redeemer University College, Hillfield Strathallan College and the Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board.
