New technology funding creates jobs for
young people
By Allison Penney
Bishop's College
St. John's, Newfoundland |
Industry minister John Manley
talks on the educational benifits
of the program.play clip |
The federal government has unveiled a new program that will
provide new job opportunities for young people in Newfoundland
and Labrador and promote the use of the information highway.
On November 10, a Memorandum of Agreement was signed by the
Honorable John Manley, Minister of Industry and Brian Tobin,
Premier of Newfoundland and Labrador, as well as Newfoundland's
Education Minister, Roger Grimes, during a ceremony in St. John's. |
The Memorandum promises that each government will invest $3
million in this program to facilitate access to the Internet
throughout the province. The goal is to make Canada the most
connected nation in the world by ensuring that all Canadians
have access to the Internet, by the year 2001.
What does this mean for us, the young people? Actually, it
has more to do with our generation than you would think. The
Community Access Program is what all the hype is about. CAP sites
are located in communities across the country, giving people
access to computer technology. |
Premier Brian Tobin, federal industry ministerJohn
Manley,
and provincial education minister Roger Grimes sign the agreement |
CAP is part of the Youth Employment Strategy and has already
helped employ 1,000 young Canadians between the ages of 15 and
30, including 70 in Newfoundland and Labrador. These sites employ
young people to create websites, update them, and keep them going
and to train others to use the technology. The new agreement
will help establish 70 more sites over the next three years.
By early 2001, the goal of Industry Canada will be to establish
up to 10,000 remote, rural and urban sites across the country. |
Newfoundland is the first province to have all its schools connected
by way of the Internet, a fact that makes Premier Tobin quite
proud. A rather impressive statistic, not to mention the fact
that Newfoundland and Labrador students did 52.8% of all the
online projects completed by Canadian students through SchoolNet's
Grassroots program. |
Minister Manley and Premier Tobin view some
of the work produced by students under the program |
This new agreement states that by the end of the year, all the
libraries throughout the province will also be connected, and
by the deadline of March 31, 2001, all other community facilities
such as community centers will be connected.
A lot of emphasis has been placed on the youth of Newfoundland
and Labrador and Canada concerning this new agreement. Both provincial
and federal governments want to see job opportunities created
for young people that are information based. Hopefully by the
year 2001 this goal will be reached, making Newfoundland the
first province in the first country to have all its people connected
by way of the Internet. |
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