HVGB campus meeting the needs of communities
7/3/2009 10:29:18 AM
The Happy Valley-Goose Bay (HVGB) campus of College of the North Atlantic (CNA) has two new program offerings for students planning to enroll in September classes.
The campus will be one of five across Newfoundland and Labrador to offer the Licensed Practical Nurse (LPN) training. The LPN program will be a 54-week comprehensive offering and will prepare graduates to meet the competency requirements for practical nursing as approved by the College of Licensed Practical Nurses.
“We’re very excited about it and we have been getting lots of enquiries from students in the area,” says Winnie Montague, campus administrator.
The town will be receiving a long-term care facility sometime in 2010; Montague says the current staff members are working overtime to make up for the employee shortage and the new complex will be looking for a larger staff compliment. To assist with the new program, the Labrador-Grenfell Health Board has donated 16 beds for the program.
Montague says the campus has traditionally catered to the industrial trades sector, with the exception of its Office Administration and Community Studies programs, and feels this offering is going to be well received by the community.
“While the success of Orientation to Trades and Technology has been very positive, the LPN program will provide women in the HVGB area a broader selection of career choices,” says Montague. “It gives them opportunities to follow more traditional areas of training. Before it was only Office Administration, but this broadens the course offering we are able to give to the community.”
The introduction of the Office Administration program to the Port Hope Simpson Learning Centre is something the campus administrator feels is very important. The grant-in-aid offering will begin in September with 15 students already applying for the 12 seats available.
For the past number of years the Learning Centre only offered Adult Basic Education, which was subject to a student’s funding approval through Service Canada. In order to establish a new program in Port Hope Simpson that would be more accessible the campus conducted a town hall meeting with the community, which was well received.
“We held a large community meeting with 40 people in attendance and they were all made aware of what we were trying to do to assist the town,” says Montague. “Now they don’t have to seek sponsorship… it’s a regular grant-in-aid program which makes it available to anyone. There are benefits to this as it is no longer as limiting for employment insurance purposes… 15 people have applied that are eligible and we will be taking 12 in the fall.”
Seven of the 15 that have applied for the program are ABE graduates from the Learning Centre, which shows the community is receptive to the increased training opportunities. It also shows the value of the ABE program to residents.
“We had one or two students at any given time, now we’re going to have 12, this shows that the college is committed to the community and the students are committed to the training and their community as well,” says Paul Motty, the other campus administrator at HVGB.
-30-
For more information contact:
Roger Hulan
Communications Specialist
College of the North Atlantic
(709) 643-7938
roger.hulan@cna.nl.ca