Chances of Coast Mountain College re-opening its closed local campus appear slim as it instead is using the internet and public school facilities when feasible for some of its course offerings.
“Some of the programs community members have benefitted (and continue to benefit) from in the past two years include trades programs delivered in collaboration with the school district, intro to health programs, education assistant, early childcare education, and early childcare assistant programs,” said Smithers-based college official Titi Kunkel following a meeting with District of Houston officials last week.
The academic portion of courses occurs online but practicums can take place at local schools, at Northern Health locations and labs for practical nursing students occur in Smithers.
People taking college courses can also use the school district’s bus service between Houston and Smithers.
“There are still challenges with enrollment numbers,” said Kunkel who is the college’s vice president in charge of its academic offerings.
“Distributed learning has provided a way to have students from different locations come together so we can offer programs,” she added in using the term referring to online courses. “We are constantly looking for creative ways to meet the community needs.”
District of Houston corporate services officer Holly Brown, who was one of the District representatives at the Oct. 25 meeting, said the hope is to increase the ability of Houston residents to take programs.
“They seem open to exploring opportunities for programming if there is a specific program offering that residents are interested in and that local businesses are in high-demand for,” said Brown.
“The issue is that we do not have much quantifiable data at this time on what the local labour needs are and which types of programming would help educate and train students to fill these employment opportunities.”
Brown did add that poor internet connections, lack of access to computers and lack of transportation are among factors limiting the ability of locals to pursue courses.
Those taking part in the Oct. 25 meeting, which was conducted virtually, are now in the beginning stages of forming a committee to advance local post secondary opportunities.
The college closed its Houston campus in 2017, citing a drop in enrolment to the point it could no longer afford a local presence.
Since then, however, the District of Houston council has advocated for a re-opening.
Following the closure the college has leased out one of its buildings to local non-profit Houston Link to Learning and, as of earlier this year, has rented its second building to the Northern Health Authority to use as a COVID-19 vaccination location.