Portage College has made their Cold Lake expansion a top priority for 2019.
“We need a modest expansion at the very least to allow for a full campus experience,” stressed Nancy Broadbent, interim president and CEO of Portage College during a presentation to the City of Cold Lake council at their regular meeting earlier this month.
Currently, students are meeting in the hallways and stairwells to study because they don't have a dedicated space at the college.
The expansion would include a multi-use space for students.
“Part of our strategy… is to increase the space that we have, create that student experience, and then marginally grow our program to complement the Cold Lake campus location,” said academic vice-president for the campus in Cold Lake Guy Gervais.
While many of their campuses are struggling to fill their classrooms, Portage's Cold Lake location is thriving.
According to Broadbent, their courses are full and they've run out of room to offer more.
“Cold Lake is actually our biggest growing campus. We currently, in terms of needs, require a campus expansion,” she emphasized.
During their 2017/18 school year, 352 students attended base courses at the college and 156 utilized the continuing education option.
“We have full-time programming, which is our credit programming, students come in and pay tuition and attend classes either full or part-time. Continuing education is all of our workforce development, safety training, basically any of the customized training that we offer,” detailed Broadbent.
For some Portage campuses, including Lac La Biche and St. Paul, enrolment maximization is the main concern.
Broadbent explained, "That means we have capacity at those campuses. There are classrooms that are underutilized, or in some cases, classrooms are utilized but the programs aren’t full. That’s not the case in Cold Lake."
In fact, their Cold Lake classes are "actually pretty full."
According to Broadbent, the campus is "scheduled down to every hour."
Where Portage is struggling in Cold Lake is in the trades department.
Gervais said this is a concern across the province.
What's happening is businesses aren't taking on new apprentices because they've had to cut back in some areas. Rather than bring-on someone new, they're keeping their more seasoned employees.
Although they have seen a bit of a dip in a few areas, there has been growth in terms of their university transfer/health and human services programming, trades training, and part-time opportunities.
“There’s a move toward more part-time learners, learners that are looking to take a class in the evening or part of a program, over studying a program over a longer period of time, because maybe they can’t afford full-time studies at that time,” Gervais said.
The college is also looking into more opportunities to provide training courses for local businesses. This way, they won't have to pay to send their staff elsewhere.
Broadbent said regardless of what's to come in terms of course material, their top priority will always be providing education to every student.
“Affordability shouldn’t be a barrier, so we agree with the government’s perspective of keeping tuition down and providing more student grant funding,” she stated.
