A summer camp aimed at introducing young people to careers in the electric automotive industry began in Sudbury on Monday.
Dubbed 'Electrifying the Future,' the camp was organized by Laurentian University in partnership with Cambrian College and Collège Boréal.
The camp is free for ages nine to 14 thanks to $500,000 in funding from the provincial government designed to address a workforce gap in the automotive industry.
Nicole Tardif, program coordinator for Laurentian University's Goodman School of Mines, said the department saw the opportunity to go from the earth to the automobile with the program.
"It's important to know about critical minerals and exploration to build batteries to service the electric vehicles," she said.
"It was also an opportunity to build a partnership with the other post-secondary institutions."
The camp is offered twice throughout the summer and Tardif said there were more than 400 applications.
"We aimed for 400 and we have well over that," she said.
Students will have the chance to visit five sites and participate in a number of activities, including coding and building robots, building solar-powered equipment and seeing battery-electric equipment used in the mines.
Tardif said each school is able to showcase its use of electric vehicles.
"Seeing as Sudbury is one of the leaders in electric vehicles and mining, we thought we would have an opportunity to showcase that part of the industry to students in our area," she said.
Students will also have the chance to visit three businesses.
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"They're going to Epiroc, Technica Mining and Laurentian Chrysler on a field trip and there they're really going to see what careers are available in those companies and apply what they're learning this week to real-life careers in the world."
This is the first time Laurentian has organized a summer camp of this nature and said it would like the camp to be an annual event.
The second installment of the Electrifying the Future summer camp will run July 31-Aug. 4.
