The Lakes District campus of the College of new Caledonia (CNC) will be offering two new programs starting this fall - access to business and pathway to practical nursing.
The access to business program, which starts in September 2016, will prepare students for the upcoming business management certificate and diploma program, which begins January 2017 at the Lakes District campus.
The pathway to practical nursing program, which also starts in September 2016, will provide students with the skills to enter into a two-year practical nursing program. The intended launch of the two-year practical nursing program in January 2018.
“As always, this offering [practical nursing program] will be dependent on sufficient enrolment; hence why we are offering the pathway program now,” explained Matt Partyka, a spokesperson with CNC. “We would like to build a cohort of students with the skills and pre-requisites necessary to enter into the [practical nursing] program.”
The new programming at the Lakes District campus was made possible by a provincial funding of $400,000 to support in-demand occupations at four CNC campuses, including Burns Lake.
“Our government is working with public post-secondary institutions and communities such as Burns Lake to deliver programs that are aligned with in-demand occupations,” said Nechako Lakes MLA John Rustad.
Government is also providing $302,000 toward the cost of the digital delivery initiative (DDI) at CNC, which relies on new technologies and improvements to broadband Internet connectivity. The digital technology is currently being piloted to allow Quesnel students to link into instructors located in Prince George and vice-versa. The DDI will be rolled out to other campuses in the next year.
The College of New Caledonia will also vary its offerings of vocational career programs in Burns Lake.
The college will take a one-year break from the long-running applied business technology (ABT) program and use the base funding to offer a blended delivery of community and school support worker instead.
According to Partyka, CNC is taking a one-year break from offering the ABT program in order to offer new programming options that have been requested by the community. The ABT program will remain available online, and CNC intends to bring the applied business technology program back in a year.
According to CNC, program offerings were determined in conjunction with consultations that the college held with communities and Aboriginal partners.
“CNC is committed to being responsive to community programming needs,” said CNC president Henry Reiser. “Our focus is on providing high-quality education and training to the thousands of students who choose the College of New Caledonia to help further their personal and professional lives.”