The College has signed a four-year lease for the former Surgical Day Care space on the first floor of the building.
“We’re thankful to the Ministry of Advanced Education, Skills & Training for providing the funding for NIC to renovate, lease and equip the space. It will allow us to meet the increasing demand for high demand programs,” said NIC President John Bowman. “We are grateful to the Views at St. Joe’s and Providence Residential and Community Care Services Society for making this initiative possible.”
For the 2019-2020 academic year, it will be used to deliver the Health Care Assistant and Early Childhood Care and Education programs.
The area has been renovated to include two classrooms, study areas, meeting rooms and skills labs, making it easy for the Comox Valley Health Care Assistant students to stay in one community for both theory and lab components of their program. Having updated lab space also benefits other health programs, making learning/practice space accessible for many students.
“It’s a space that we’ve been able to customize to meet the needs of our students,” said Kathleen Haggith, dean of health and human services. “The faculty and staff were excited to start the semester here.”
Health Care Assistant students began their program in August and a second program will begin in January 2020 – one of eight additional Heath Care Assistant certificate programs NIC is offering in 2019-2020.
Early Childhood Care and Education students will also start at the new space in winter 2020. Feasibility studies are being done to determine if other programs can be delivered on site in future years.
“We are looking forward to making the most of this space over the next few years while we seek more permanent solutions to the severe space constraints at our Comox Valley campus,” said Bowman.
Applications are open for the January starts for both Health Care Assistant and Early Childhood Care and Education certificates.
For more information, or to apply, visit: www.nic.bc.ca/health-human-services.
