ATHABASCA – Portage College’s president and CEO, Nancy Broadbent recently made presentations to two local councils on a variety of topics including the school’s record-breaking attendance, new programs for seniors, and adult learning classes.
Broadbent was in front of Athabasca County’s council June 29, and the Village of Boyle’s council July 5; while the presentations were similar, Broadbent did highlight some of the key issues that impacted each municipal body, including the need for new housing at the Boyle campus.
“Right now we’re in the middle of what we are calling ‘Strategy 2025,’ which came out of aligning with the previous minister’s objectives around partnership and efficiency,” said Broadbent during the June 29 presentation. “I’m proud to announce that we’re expanding, and we’re expanding like crazy. We’ve had about a 40 per cent increase in our enrollments over this past year.”
According to Broadbent, the college has always maintained about 900 full time equivalent students throughout its 20-year history, but that number has climbed to roughly 1400 for the first time.
“Lots of the expansion has been due to funding that we received, particularly in the paramedicine and nursing faculties. We’ve also had numerous partnerships around degree completion, and we’re looking at bringing out some new trades training as well.”
Portage, which is based out of Lac La Biche but offers classes through satellite campuses or online, listed nine students from Boyle and four from Athabasca; these students either attended a small campus in the village, drove to Lac La Biche, or took their classes online.
Alongside their traditional post-secondary programs, Portage also runs the Community Adult Learning Program (CALP), which served 152 learners over nine locations, including Bonnyville, St. Paul, and Elk Point, as well as a variety of Indigenous communities.
“Our model is to have teachers with a Bachelor of Education in the facility, mostly part-time but that could expand. These people are helping with everything from driver training to basic skills,” said Broadbent. “They offer classes in basic literacy skills to help with passing a driver exam or whatever else they need. It goes all the way up to offering support if they’re in a distance learning program through Athabasca University or us.”
Broadbent went on to say that there were plenty of communities that offered their own version of the program, which are all funded by the Ministry of Advanced Education. The Word Work Literacy Society in the town of Athabasca is one example of a CALP that isn’t run through a post-secondary institution.
“One thing we’ve just recently gotten funding for is a digital literacy program which works primarily with Indigenous elders. As they’re moving into broadband and highspeed internet, there is a lot of concern about people being at risk due to poor cyber security, or not knowing how to access everything online these days,” said Broadbent, adding she was sharing the news in case there was any desire for cross training opportunities.
Broadbent said that while there was a set time for CALP programs to meet, she wasn’t opposed to additional opportunities for collaboration either.
