Call it the Cambridge factor.

The Northern Alberta Institute of Technology (NAIT) not only plans to invest $750 million in its expansion over the next 10 years, it also wants to be one of North America's top technical colleges.

To do this, it has set its sights on two Cambridge, Mass.- based institutions - Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) - as its inspiration.

NAIT's expansion blueprint, what it calls a major key to securing Alberta's future, is an ambitious plan to increase enrolment, build new facilities and consolidate most of its eight Edmonton sites into two major campuses.

Illustration courtesy of NAIT
The proposed centre for business enterprises is a major part of NAIT's expansion blueprint.

"Clearly, we want to position ourselves like Boston where you have a Harvard and an MIT," says NAIT president Sam Shaw. "We want to have the applied research plan and the people to establish a beachhead in Canada."

"In 10 years from now, Edmonton will be in a similar situation with the University of Alberta and NAIT."

Right now, however, it's the oilsands that are spurring NAIT's growth.

"It's the Syncrudes, and the Suncors, and the CNRLs," says Shaw, "and if you look at their plans it's not the next five years, it's for the next 15 to 20 years."

But Shaw envisions much more than an expansion program that will increase the number of apprentices being turned out from NAIT, which now trains 59 per cent of Alberta's apprentices and 19 per cent of Canada's apprentices.

"In terms of looking at advanced technologies, such as robotics, NAIT will be a leading institution in Canada around advanced technologies," says Shaw. "I envision that we will have a knowledge economy - a manufacturing sector, alternative energy, (etc.).

"We will be one of the leading forces in the world looking at that knowledge economy and be a destination of choice for post-secondary (education)."

The centre for business enterprise, which will become the new face of an expanded NAIT main campus, will also have a Cambridge connection.

Slated to open August 2010, the building will allow enrolment in the school of business to increase by 65 per cent from the current level of 2,060 students to 3,400 students annually, an additional 1,340 spots.

Spaces for college prep, pre-business, pre-engineering and pre-technology programs will increase by 40 per cent from 1,240 students to 1,720 students annually, an additional 480 spots. Spaces for corporate and industry training and international education will expand by 35 per cent from 44,000 registrants per year to 60,000 annually.

However, what excites NAIT school of business dean Corey Wentzell even more is the design of the new facility and the role it will play in turning out tomorrow's business leaders.

"We needed a building designed from the ground up for communication, education and decision analysis," says Wentzell.

Taking a page from the Harvard business school, the new centre will result in a facility with a range of learning spaces that will create a feeling of being in the real business world, as opposed to a classroom. NAIT officials went to Harvard, while Harvard representatives also travelled to Edmonton to get the project right.

"For example, we could simulate a small business environment, and if you provide that, students will not feel like they're going to school but like they're going to their own business," says Wentzell. "Or they could work (in the centre) in a not-for-profit type of environment. A variety of business-style configurations are being designed."

"It's not so much about going to a post-secondary institution to learn about business, but more like going to a business and experiencing what it's like to be in that business."

Meanwhile, the Harvard effect has also resulted in a new degree the school of business will offer as of September 2007, a bachelor of technology in business enterprise.

"We've been working with a consultant from the Harvard business school to help us design that new program," says Wentzell. "The idea is to develop the mindset and the skills of the entrepreneur into all business contexts, including jobs and careers."

Highlights of the 10-year building program include consolidating seven of eight NAIT sites into two campuses: NAIT's existing main campus and the creation of a new southside Edmonton campus that will be home to more than 8,000 students and housed on 40 hectares. An announcement is expected this fall on the new south site.

NAIT's northern campuses in St. Albert, Grande Prairie, Peace River and Fairview won't be consolidated or closed as part of the plan, while Grande Prairie will actually get a new campus in 2008.

FACT BOX

Building A Better NAIT

NAIT's $750-million campus development strategy will boost its annual training capacity by nearly 50 per cent, from 65,000 students to 95,000 students.

NAIT's eight Edmonton-area operations will ultimately be consolidated into two sites: The current main campus and a new south Edmonton campus.

Plans for the main campus include:

* A new centre for power engineering to open in September.

* Completion of the Shell Centre for Manufacturing Solutions in March 2007, a facility to help Alberta-based manufacturers achieve new levels of operational efficiency and competitiveness.

* The NAIT Spartan Centre for Instrumentation Technology, the centre for millwright technology and the new centre for building and environmental systems technology will open in August 2007.

* The centre for machinist technology opens in December 2007.

* The centre for business enterprise opens in 2010.

* Following construction of the centre for business enterprise, the eight-storey business tower will be upgraded and reopen as the centre for electrical technologies.

* The school of health sciences can then expand into adjacent space in its current building to become the centre for applied health sciences.

* A new centre for graphic sign arts and painting and decorating will house those programs.

* A centre for engineering technologies will replace the original one-story automotive shops and offices built in 1962.

* Once the petroleum, mechanical, electrical and structural engineering technologies are grouped together, NAIT will be in a position to develop a centre for oilsands applied research.

* NAIT's plans also include a student village, a parkade and a location for a future LRT station.

- Source: NAIT

(Laura Severs can be reached at laura@businessedge.ca)