Local Company Pledges $50,000 for New Trades Complex at Okanagan College

A local company has announced a donation for the new trades building at Okanagan College.

Inland Kenworth has pledged $50,000 to the the Bright Horizon’s Building for Skills Campaign, which will help build a bay in the new three-storey Trades Training Complex currently under construction.

“The new trades training complex will elevate the Southern Interior as a hub for trades training, by providing students with a world-class facility to match the high quality of instruction that Okanagan College has offered for more than fifty years,” said Okanagan College President Jim Hamilton. “We’re very grateful to Inland for investing in the future of our students and our campus.”

Inland originated in the Okanagan over 65 years ago, with operations in Vernon, Penticton and Kamloops. The West Kelowna facility is the most recent addition, opening for business last fall. Inland now owns dealerships throughout Southern California, Arizona, New Mexico, and B.C. and the Yukon Territories in Canada.

Left to Right: Aaron Sanders, Operations Manager, Inland; John Haller, Okanagan College Foundation; Rick Datoff, branch manager, Inland (Photo Credit: Okanagan College)

“We’re very proud to call the Okanagan home,” said Boyd McConnachie, vice president of business development at Inland. “It is key to the economy that local businesses and organizations work together to develop our own homegrown talent.”

The Bright Horizons Building for Skills fundraising campaign for the $33-million complex renovation and expansion project launched in October 2014. The project includes a 10,000 sq. metre renovation and expansion, including new construction and bringing the College’s existing shops and classroom spaces up to LEED Platinum and Living Building Challenge standards.

When doors open in 2016, the new facility will accommodate over 2,400 students, almost doubling capacity for trades training at the Kelowna campus. Okanagan College is currently the second largest trades training institution in B.C. The provincial government has committed $28 million to the project. The goal of the campaign is to top this up by raising $5 million for capital construction costs and $2 million for program and student support.