And with a snip or two, the mobile campus for Coast Mountain College was declared Open!

Coast Mountain College celebrated the Grand Opening of its new
Mobile Training Unit last Thursday evening at the Prince Rupert Campus

Last Thursday evening made for the grand debut for the latest educational asset for Coast Mountain College as college officials and invited guests officially declared open the College's new mobile campus.

As we outlined on the blog early last week, the new 1.3 million dollar training facility arrived at the Prince Rupert Campus on Monday morning, in anticipation of the Grand Opening to come later in the week.

After a presentation for the audience and speeches from the officials in the south wing of the campus, those in attendance on the evening toured the 53-foot trailer, which  can expand to 1,000 square feet.

Among some of the highlights for those to explore the new mobile campus facility were the commercial kitchen equipment installed on one side, as well as equipment used in the  Gas Processing Operator program on the other.

Once the unit has finished its time in Prince Rupert, the next stop for the mobile facility will be in Smithers this winter as part of college's Professional Cook program.

The highly acclaimed Professional Cook program is one
Coast Mountain Program that will
be able to take advantage of the new mobile campus

The Coast Mountain College Gas Processing program will also be
making extensive use of the mobile unit, with the program currently
in place at the Prince Rupert campus

The night included a number of displays of some of the equipment that the new unit will offer to the community when it is based in Prince Rupert.

The Coast Mountain faculty and students also provided  some demonstrations throughout the campus with some of the tech tools that they have available such as virtual reality, the digital microscope and some small indoor drone demonstrations.

As well, those taking part could learn more about some technology called the augmented reality sandbox which allows users to use sand to build a landscape which then projects a topographical map over top of the sand, bringing a flat map into a 3D representation.

Among those that took part in the official opening of the unit were the Coast Mountain College Prince Rupert board members, Mary Denton and David Smith, as well as city councillors Randhawa, Cunningham and Skelton-Morven.

Former Mayor Herb Pond was also at the Thursday event serving as one of the Prince Rupert representatives on the Coast Mountain Foundation, which serves to raise funds for expanding the education footprint in the region.

Partnerships was the theme for the Port of Prince Rupert's Ken Veldman
who spoke at last week's official opening of the new mobile campus

The Port of Prince Rupert's Ken Veldman, who is also a member of the Coast Mountain Foundation spoke to the value of partnerships across the Northwest on Thursday evening.

MLA Jennifer Rice, was on hand for the event, Ms. Rice is an alumnus of Coast Mountain College going back to her days as a student in the Coastal Ecology program at the then Northwest Community College.

Elder Murray Smith delivered the greeting to the territory on Thursday

Another alumnus, Elder Murray Smith brought the words of welcome to the traditional territory, with the evening also marking his birthday! Mr. Smith has seen some significant change to the region since he was born on Nov. 7, 1939, and spoke towards many themes gathered from over his 80 years.

And with a final snip, the new mobile training unit was officially open

At the Thursday evening event Coast Mountain College had two students, Raymond and Jake from the Gas Process Operator program on hand to cut the ribbon on the new training unit alongside the Acting VP Academic, Dr. Laurie Waye and Gas Process Operator instructor Leo Rutherford.

The program is being offered in Prince Rupert and the mobile training unit will be put into service here to support future sessions, the GPO program has already provided for trained personnel for the AltaGas facility at Ridley Island..

Thursday offered a chance for Coast Mountain College to host the evening that showcased some of the innovation that they have to offer and give those in attendance a hands-on opportunity to see what technology that the college has to offer in support of their vision to deliver  experiential, place-based learning in Prince Rupert.

The itinerary for the new unit is for it to remain in Prince Rupert towards the end of this week, when it will return to Terrace for a few days, with another westbound trip to Rupert for the remainder of the semester.

You can learn more about the new mobile unit here.

Keep an eye on the Coast Mountain College social media feeds in the future, where a sample of some of the events of the night may soon be appearing.

For more notes on Coast Mountain College see our archive page here.