Montreal | The National School of Furniture and Cabinetmaking threatened with closure

Teachers from the National School of Furniture and Cabinetmaking in Montreal are going up to the barricades to prevent its possible closure.

Like so many universities and some CEGEPs which open branches very far from their territory, the Victoriaville CEGEP opened a subsidiary of its furniture school in Montreal, some 30 years ago, in order to maximize the number of registrations.

However, the CEGEP will soon lose, to the benefit of the Ahuntsic CEGEP, its urban agriculture program, which it hosted in the same building (corner Masson and De Lorimier) two years ago. The Victoriaville CEGEP thus loses the funding associated with the urban agriculture program and the space it occupies will soon be free.

To the teachers, management reportedly said that it was considering three possibilities: stay on site and find another tenant, sell the building and become its tenant or close the Montreal branch to keep only its main school in Victoriaville.

Mathieu Pellerin, who teaches in Montreal, says he asked management if they were thinking of adding their Montreal subsidiary to a CEGEP in the metropolis.

This avenue, he assures, was rejected out of hand, which he perceives as “a scorched earth policy”, the Victoriaville CEGEP not wanting, according to him, another CEGEP to compete with its main school in Victoriaville.

This is also the understanding of Professor Julien Duchêne, who is outraged to see that the Victoriaville CEGEP is ready to ax an “educational project and cabinetmaking know-how” in Montreal for reasons of rivalries between CEGEPs. . (Between 15 and 25 students graduate each year.)

The management of the Cégep de Victoriaville immediately refused our interview request, saying that it would make comments after the board of directors meeting on February 19.

The office of Pascale Déry, Minister of Higher Education, has only indicated that it is “working in close collaboration with the Victoriaville CEGEP on various possible solutions”.

A “healthy” environment

Julien Duchêne finds it distressing that the little gem that the school represents risks being dismantled while, from his point of view, very little effort is being made to find other tenants. He adds that the National School is located in the heart of a bustling neighborhood, with a number of cabinetmaking workshops located in this area conducive to the development of a trade center.

On Radio-Canada, the Montreal School of Jewelry, which has an annual lease on Boulevard De Maisonneuve, says that it would very well see itself as a tenant at the National School of Furniture and Cabinetmaking.

Like the teachers – who launched a petition – Éléonore Schreiber, student of 2^e year, highlights how “the cabinetmaking community is healthy in Montreal” and that the placement rate for graduates is almost 100%.

For Thomas Vera, the Cabinetmaking School was not only the springboard for a professional reconversion, it was also the one that attracted him to Quebec from his native France. “After my training, I intend to launch my business and stay in Montreal. I’m thinking of renting a workshop, sharing it with someone and launching my business. »

Students currently in training are not threatened. Those who already attend this school will be able to complete their training. But everyone who was interviewed argues that it would be regrettable to close a school that functions well and trains young people in a field where there is a labor shortage.