Adult Basic Education

SUMMARY OF PROGRAMS

Adult Basic Education

Over 451 students were served through Adult Basic Education programming at North West College. Of the students registered, 50% self-declared as Indigenous. The successes achieved in ABE works to build student confidence and through individualized program planning, leads to post-secondary graduation and successful conversion from student to skilled employee.

Essential Skills and Work Integrated Learning (WIL)

North West ensures Adult Basic Education student success through Essential Skills for the Workplace (ESWP) programs. In 2020-21, North West offered an Educational Assistant ESWP program in partnership with Living Sky School Division. Living Sky School Division provided the schools, the classroom teacher/educational assistant mentor support, and Safe School training which is required for future employment with the school division. The College also offered Security Officer and Sanitation ESWP programs, which were two programs that were offered in response to the job vacancies created by the pandemic. The Security Officer program had a 77% completion rate and a 100% employment rate for the eight graduates.

In addition to the programs mentioned above, NWC offered ESWP programs specializing in Mechanics that was run in partnership with Poundmaker Cree Nation, a Park Worker program was offered in Shellbrook, and a Food and Beverage program that was offered at Meadow Lake Campus. In total, the College offered eight ESWP programs during the 2020-21 year.

Evening Adult Basic Education Programs – Offer Alternatives

North West in the Battlefords has significant waitlists for Adult Basic Education programming. The College initiated the tri-semester system in 2017-18 as a solution not only to address waitlists, but to provide increased success to students with complicated lives. This continues as a good solution and has reduced the wait time on the waitlist for students. Over the years, the College has offered 30 Level math and sciences in the evenings for people transitioning from work to post-secondary. The use of Chromebooks and Learning Management System such as Google Classroom has also helped the students with the transition into post-secondary or work.

32 programs offered off-campus

36% of students participated in off-campus programming

SUMMARY OF PROGRAMS

The College Adapts

Covid-19 was a prominent feature of the 2020-21 academic year. Staff and students transitioned to a blended delivery model while showing innovation, commitment and resilience. Blended learning factored into our graduation of students from Adult Basic Education. The inclusion of Google Classroom and Google Meets offered our ABE students an opportunity to be successful and graduate during a pandemic.

English as an Additional Language – Meeting the Demand

As one of the major immigration sites in the province, EAL and new Canadian services are critical for the College to meet the needs of our region. In 2020-21, North West’s EAL program continued to thrive with formal Language Instruction for Newcomers to Canada and conversation circle delivery. North West served 96 students in the communities of North Battleford, Meadow Lake, Rosthern, and Spiritwood. The College proposed and was selected to deliver a Pilot Project by IRCC. This was an online synchronous program to help reduce waitlists province wide. The pilot had excellent attendance and provided an opportunity for one of our instructors to develop skills in Google Classroom and online learning. The use of Chromebooks/Google classroom through this pilot enhanced digital literacy for both students and staff.

Table 2. Equity Participation Enrollment by Regional College 2020-21

Skills Training

Basic Education Program Groups

Institute Credit

Aboriginal Visible Minority Disability Total Enrollment FT PT Cas FT PT Cas FT PT Cas FT PT Cas 146 40 0 7 11 0 12 6 0 217 94 0

Industry Credit

0 41 202 0 3 21 0 1 13 0 65 658 Non-credit 0 10 27 0 2 1 0 1 0 0 37 74

Total Skills Training 146 91 229 7 16 22 12 8 13 217 196 732

Adult 12 86 59 0 4 1 0 17 4 0 111 73 0

Adult 10

44 42 0 1 1 0 7 3 0 49 45 0 Academic GED 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Employability/Life Skills 60 83 0 5 2 0 10 5 0 79 94 0 English Language Training 0 1 0 0 18 0 0 0 0 1 95 0 General Academic Studies 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Literacy 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

Total Basic Education 190 185 0 10 22 0 34 12 0 240 307 0

University Total Enrollment

18 7 0 1 0 0 4 3 0 22 28 0 354 283 229 18 38 22 50 23 13 479 531 732