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january
5, 2000 Lethbridge
Community College will receive $1.69 million in Access Funding from
Alberta Learning to
add more than 77 additional spaces in Nursing and two information
and communications technology (ICT) programs. In
today’s Access Fund announcement from Alberta
Learning, Lethbridge Community College is set to add nearly
200 new full-load equivalent (FLE) spaces in three programs by 2005.
These
extra spaces will allow for expansion of the Collaborative Nursing
program with the University of Lethbridge
and the Computer Information Technology program (which also has
a 2+2 transfer agreement with the U of L). New spaces are also planned
for a Geomatics option to be developed for the Engineering Design
and Drafting Technology diploma program. A
further $800,000 in capital funding for facilities expansion, approximately
$10,000 per FLE, is also included in this new funding. According
to LCC Board of Governor’s chair Derek Redman, the additional
funding will give the College a good start in working on the Campus
Development Plan to bring needed new facilities to the campus. The
College seeks to add an additional 1,000 new spaces by 2005. “It’s
great news for the College and with the start of a new year and
a new centruy, this couldn’t have come at a better time,”
says Redman. “Now that government is recognizing the potential
for the College in meeting the demand for new program, we can look
forward to an exciting future filled with tremendous growth.” Collaborative
Nursing degree LCC and the University of Lethbridge
made a joint submission for Accessibility Funding for expansion
of this collaborative degree program. In their joint submission
LCC and the U of L went into great detail describing the student
demand, employer support and employment opportunity. Employment
rates for completers has remained in the 90% range in recent years
(diploma completers in 1997/98 reported a 94% employment rate),
despite substantial changes in staffing approaches across the health
care system. “This
announcement is great news for health care education in the south,”
says LCC Vice-president, Curriculum and Instruction Jean Valgardson.
“The University and College have a long history of partnering
to provide that education. The joint submission we made for the
new funding certainly embodied the deep commitment the two institutions
have that partnership. This new funding will see us develop new
curriculum for the next century as well as allow us to move into
new areas of specialization such as gerontology, aboriginal and
rural nursing.” The
College will receive approximately $166,000 in funding for 23 new
spaces in 2000/01, which will grow to 89 spaces by 2004/05. Computer
Information Technology
has been the centre of high demand. Applications are received at
a rate more than double the spaces available for students. Application
demand for September, 1998 was 166 for a target of 70 spaces, with
another 52 applications in January for 25 target spaces. Completers
from 1997/98 reported an 88% employment rate in the key performance
indicator completer survey. In December, 1999 the College signed
a 2+2 transfer agreement with the University of Lethbridge’s
Computer Science degree. The
College will receive $163,000 in funding for 30 spaces and an additional
$160,000 for equipment and curriculum development. By 2004/05 the
number of spaces is expected to double to 60. Geomatics
This program expansion draws together elements from three diploma
programs: Engineering Design
and Drafting, Civil Engineering
and Renewable Resource Management
with advanced courses in GIS and GPS to create a new major in Engineering
Design and Drafting Technology. Geomatics is an area of surveying
and mapping that requires training in the collection, analysis,
storage, distribution and application of spatial or three-dimensional
data used in land development. Increasingly, this growing field
of engineering technology is becoming more reliant on electronic
information and communications technology. Economic
growth across this region requires trained personnel to locate and
map physical features on the land, determine property boundaries
for titles to property, perform surveys to locate and build transportation
systems and layout large industrial complexes such as food processing
plants, dam sites, irrigation and petroleum pipelines and a number
of agriculture-related operations. It
is expected this program will link with the University of Lethbridge’s
Bachelor of Geographic Information Systems. -
30 - Derek
Redman, QC, Chair, Lethbridge Community College Board of Governors,
328-1766 Jean Valgardson, LCC Vice-president, Curriculum and Instruction, 320-3426. BACK TO NEWS AND EVENTS
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