The governance team of Campus Alberta Central (CAC) held its retreat in Stettler on Thursday, Aug.20 as members discussed issues and looked forward to the future as they embarked upon their sixth year as an organization.
“Campus Alberta Central has been working throughout the region and in Stettler in particular to provide a wide range of programming,” said Bonnie Ireland, executive director, Campus Alberta Central. “At this moment we have a number of programs we offer online through our colleges, Red Deer College in particular and we have got a number of new ones coming soon through Olds College as well.”
CAC was formed as a partnership between Olds College and Red Deer College to take their platform to learners, rather than expecting learners to move to a different place.
“We believe that giving students an opportunity to take programming in their own communities, in their own homes makes it a lot easier for them to be successful,” said Joel Ward, president of Red Deer College.
CAC has three main hubs – Stettler, Rocky Mountain House and Drumheller.
Dr. Tom Thompson, president of Olds College, explained that every community has its own unique needs and depending upon the needs of the learners in a particular area, a specific program can be developed.
Speaking of the meeting, Thompson said, “It is a very important part of our overall program, because, of course, this is the time when you got to take a step back and you get to reflect and you get to look ahead and get to do your strategy, especially the strategy, which leads into the operational planning.”
Elaborating on the learning process, Ireland mentioned that CAC provides “blended delivery programming”.
“We have a face-to-face component that’s right here in our classrooms at the centre, where people are training specific workplace skills and then they could be taking portions of their program online.”