Northern Alberta colleges and polytechnics deepen ties with new agreement

Dennis Kovtun · CBC News

· Posted: Mar 23, 2025 8:00 AM EDT | Last Updated: 10 minutes ago

Five colleges and polytechnics successful bluish Alberta person signed a caller statement to collaborate much intimately to broaden acquisition pathways for students successful the region. 

The statement between Keyano College, Lakeland College, Northern Lakes College, Northwestern Polytechnic and Portage College, announced connected March 14, is the archetypal of its benignant successful bluish Alberta. 

Glenn Mitchell, president of Northern Lakes College, told CBC the collaboration has 3 main areas of focus: enhanced pupil access, mobility, and improved learner outcomes.

"This volition beryllium the effect of the shared improvement of caller programs that volition beryllium made disposable successful the region," Mitchell said. 

The memorandum of knowing paves the mode for formalized transportation agreements and credential designation betwixt the institutions. 

It should marque it easier for a pupil moving from 1 instauration to another, Mitchell said. 

"There volition beryllium nary request for students to person to repetition a people due to the fact that the requirements astatine 1 instauration are antithetic than the requirements astatine different institution," helium said. 

Mitchell said the institutions spot the request to travel together to connection the programs that Alberta's northbound requires and wants. 

Vanessa Sheane, president of Northwestern Polytechnic successful Grande Prairie, said successful a quality merchandise that "strengthening the ties between our institutions is simply a earthy solution that volition boost determination competitiveness and assistance mitigate existent and future workforce challenges."

Keyano College enhancing its health-care programs 

Some bluish institutions stress their health-care acquisition programme offerings, and are moving connected expanding them. 

Keyano College successful Fort McMurray will person $2 cardinal from the provincial government, if this year's fund is passed, to amended and make its in-demand programs, similar nursing and paramedicine, to assistance code labour needs successful Alberta's health-care system.  

"Keyano College has done immoderate tremendous enactment successful the past successful presumption of turning retired large graduates successful the wellness attraction field. And truthful we're blessed to put much and supply further superior dollars," said Advanced Education Minister Rajan Sawhney at a news conference successful Edmonton connected Tuesday. 

Across its assorted wellness attraction and quality services programs, the assemblage volition postgraduate much than 200 students this year. 

"We bash expect that a batch of them volition take this assemblage successful this portion pursuing graduation. So let's clasp them and assistance capable that shortage, that spread that we cognize is expected wrong the tract successful the coming years", said Keyano president Sandra Efu in an interview. 

"We cognize that erstwhile individuals bid and survey successful a peculiar community, they're more likely to enactment and signifier wrong that community," Efu said. 

"So we privation to marque definite that we're continuing to pull and clasp endowment to supply the indispensable wellness grooming wrong this assemblage and wrong this region." 

Workforce benefits

This accent connected health-care training, unneurotic with the collaboration statement with different institutions, could output sizeable benefits for the region's workforce, according to Kathy Howe, enforcement manager astatine the Alberta Association of Nurses.

"I deliberation these decentralized programs are truthful bully for outlying areas that are distant from Edmonton and Calgary successful particular, and are truthful overmuch amended for the assemblage and specified a large accidental for students," she said. 

Howe said that an important payment of expanding health-care acquisition successful the northbound is that having much graduates volition instrumentality immoderate unit disconnected of the existent workers. 

"As much nurses travel on, arsenic much shifts are filled, arsenic there's much radical to prime up immoderate slack during vacation time —that perfectly [is] going to spell a agelong mode to retaining nurses, due to the fact that they're going to person a bully work-life balance," she said.  

"More health-care providers are going to marque it easier connected those that are already there."