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Northern Lakes College shows off dual-credit program

Athabasca County councillors hear presentation from college on the benefits for local students
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Athabasca County councillors got schooled on Northern Lakes College’s dual-credit program at their May 23 meeting.

ATHABASCA – Athabasca County councillors had the opportunity to hear about Northern Lake College’s (NLC) dual-credit program at their May 23 meeting, which highlighted the benefits for local kids as they finish up high school.

Councillors voted 8-0 to accept the presentation as information — Coun. Tracy Holland was absent – after Brian Panasiuk, who heads up the program, gave a 15-minute presentation and answered questions. At its core, the dual-credit program allows students still enrolled in high school to complete college- or university-level courses and get credit from both institutions.

“There’s a ton of good reasons why you would want to take dual credit,” said Panasiuk. “I’m a dual-credit convert. I’ve seen so many success stories where kids get an opportunity to explore a career that they might be interested in. It saves them time to find out if they like what they’re doing or not, and in some cases, we’ve seen students graduate from college before they’ve even finished high school.”

Depending on what the student is interested in, they can either take classes, or participate in a program, which would tie into a field down the road. For example, a student that wants to be a paramedic can start taking classes that directly apply to the college program, while if they wanted to attend university, but didn’t know what they wanted, they could take a general biology class and transfer the credits down the road.

“It’s easy to get started doing dual credit. If you’re a high school student here in Athabasca, you just go see your counsellor. We have an agreement signed (between) the college and the Aspen View School Division, so they just talk to their counsellor and can get the classes going,” said Panasiuk.

Coun. Kelly Chamzuk took the opportunity to thank the college, noting that as a mother, she appreciated the opportunities that were being offered.

“I really appreciate even just seeing on social media, you guys have everything from firearms safety courses to H2S Alive. It’s just really great to see that. You partially answered my question by partnering with Aspen View, but do you also partner with Northern Lights School Division (NLSD)?”

Panasiuk said that, while they weren’t partnered yet with NLSD, school divisions are able to partner with post-secondary institutions across the province.

“One of the nice things about NLC is we do a lot of our delivery by distance. A lot of our programs, besides the trades, they can take by distance, so they can take them just about anywhere.”

Reeve Brian Hall said that the success of the program was something he had witnessed first hand, having seen students attend both high school and NLC graduations in the same week, and then be working in the county office soon after. The 2022-2023 school year saw six local students participate, mostly in Grades 11 and 12.

“They need to have Grade 10 pre-requisites for English and Math 10, so they could start in the second semester but normally they start in Grades 11 or 12,” said Panasiuk, answering a question from the reeve.

Students that are interested in pursuing a trade have a slightly different experience as they have to be on site for much of their programming, which for Athabasca means that the closest facilities are in Slave Lake.

“It’s a full-time program, so they must be there face-to-face. Usually, it’s a semester off when they take a trade, and they’ve got to be on site. For Athabasca it’s not ideal, since the student has to relocate. We have had students relocate, if they were interested, but usually it’s students in the community that take the trade programs,” said Panasiuk.

Cole Brennan, TownandCountryToday.com


Cole Brennan

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