Distance program brings post-secondary education to remote Northwest communities

MLA's Rice and Cullen joined Advanced Education
Minister Anne Kang this week to highlight the
progress for the Contact North BC program in NW BC

While post secondary colleges and universities, including Coast Mountain College in the Northwest, are making plans for a return to in class activities for September, the province of British Columbia is hailing the success of a program  to get course options to a wider group of potential students, updating the progress of the Contact North program this week.

Contact North BC, a collaboration between Coast Mountain College (CMTN) and Indigenous communities in northwestern B.C., was created with the goal of expanding post-secondary access for students living in remote and rural communities where there are also large numbers of Indigenous students. 

Since the soft launch of the project in January 2021, students have registered in more than 400 courses across B.C.’s public post-secondary system. 

Through the program, students are able to take any course offered online by B.C. public colleges and universities, while accessing face-to-face and online supports close to home through the community-based learning centres. 

The British Columbia program is modelled on the experience of Contact North, an Ontario non-profit with more than 30 years’ experience working with remote Indigenous communities and students. Local people are hired and trained by Contact North BC to staff the learning centres.

The Province is providing approximately $1.5 million for the project that will offer service across the traditional territories of the Haida, Nisga'a, Gitxsan, Wet’suwet’en, Tsimshian, Haisla and Tahltan Nations. Other participants include School District 92 (Nass), School District 54 (Bulkley Valley) and the Métis Nation in Terrace.

All 20 learning centres are expected to be in operation by March 2022.

 “This Contact North BC project is a remarkable example of what can happen when the resources and expertise that already exist at our world-class post-secondary institutions come together to solve a problem of access,. Ensuring remote communities can leverage technology to participate in post-secondary education, not previously accessible close to home, will change people’s futures.” -- North Coast MLA Jennifer Rice

Ms. Rice, Stikine MLA Nathan Cullen and Anne Kang, Minster of Advance Skills and Training hosted an online forum on the program earlier this week, you can explore the background to the initiative and hear from some of those providing the program in communities across the northwest from the video below:

Coast Mountain College President Justin Kohlman outlined how the Terrace based college has approached delivering the program

"First Nations education leaders in our region have requested that we provide more academic options to their students, while allowing them to remain in their home communities. This program gives every student in one of these communities the opportunity to take any online offering in the province while knowing they will have quality technology and local staff to support them."

Further notes on the Coast Mountain contribution can be reviewed here.

Learn more about this weeks announcement on the program here.

For more notes on post secondary education across the region see our archive page here.