The Lakeland Catholic School District (LCSD) is offering students alternative opportunities to enhance their futures through dual-credit courses and other programs.
“They’re about preparing students for their life outside of us, so beyond Grade 12,” explained Amanda Wildman, dual-credit coordinator for LCSD, during the board of trustees meeting on Wednesday, March 27. “When we’re talking about post-secondary, we’re talking about university, college, trades, and technical school, as well as the world of work.”
Students from Grade 5 to 9 have even more opportunities than previous years. Now, they can gain hands-on experience in wood burning, cake decorating, and food and construction challenges.
Wildman said, “They’re about addressing transferable skills, basic competencies, as well as taking what you learned in your courses and applying it to possible future post-secondary programming or a career you’re interested in.”
LCSD has been providing dual-credit courses since 2014, and every year the list of options continues to grow.
For Wildman, these courses not only provide the skills students need to get the job done.
“It’s an opportunity for students to increase their confidence, and also open their minds and hearts to opportunities that they might not have considered before. We don’t necessarily get students locked into programs, but we give them an idea of trying out a course to see if it’s a good fit, to see if it’s an area of interest to them.”
Through a partnership with Portage College, LCSD was able to organize a new initiative that includes heavy equipment technician, electrical, and robotics.
When students successfully complete this program, they will have their pre-employment heavy equipment technician certificate.
According to Wildman, with the help of $50,000 in grant funding from the provincial government, they were able to expand their hairstyling program within the next year.
Currently, Notre Dame High School (NDHS) offers cosmetology. The district is looking to bring the program to schools in Cold Lake and Lac La Biche.
Imperial Oil, a partner with LCSD, donated $30,000 to their district’s dual-credit program.
Through post-secondary exposure classes, students have been able to participate in university and environmental sciences.
“A lot of kids, if you sit down with them and ask them what they want to do, some of them are very undecided. An opportunity like this can help them in making a more informed decision,” Wildman expressed, adding they couldn’t make this possible without the community’s support.
She continued, “It’s important to mention, in the regions that our district operates, we have a true spirit of community. We have a lot of partners that work with us, and we’re so grateful to our partners in education for wanting to help our students to learn over lending their expertise for providing financial support or providing us with access to specialized spaces and equipment.”
LCSD board trustee Vicky Lefebvre was pleased to see what’s available to their students.
“There just wasn’t the opportunities years ago to look at these different things, you were kind of pegged into different things and jobs that you could go into. I think this is great just to give them a bit of a taste to have something that they can go into that would spark that interest. I do believe that if people get into doing something that they love, then it’s not necessarily work and it makes for a better life when you love it instead of being stressed by something that you don’t like.”
