Grande Prairie college expanding its curriculum to meet needs of a changing city

A northern Alberta college is expanding its curriculum offerings, adding more professional programs to its blue-collar curriculum, in a bid to keep pace with the needs of a rapidly growing city.

Grande Prairie Regional College is expanding its health-care, education and business management programs to capitalize onchanges in the city, including a new hospital and a school building boom.

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To keep up with recruiters, the college is aligning its programs with the shifting workforce demands,said vice-president of academics and planning SusanBansgrove.

"We do our very best to be responsive to the demands of both the student at one end, and the employer for graduates at the other end," Bansgrove said.

In the past, she said, the college focused on trades and skilled labour training to match aneconomy driven by oil, gas, forestry and agriculture.

"Very often, untrained or minimally trained people can do very, very well economically in our region when the economy is strong,"shesaid.

"When students or potential students can almost make as muchmoney or more without training, there's a reluctance to get training."

More than half the people15 or older in Grande Prairie have no post-secondary certificate or diploma, according to 2016 census results, while the majority of people with post-secondary education are trained in trades or have a certificate or diploma below the bachelor level.

Bansgrove expects to see the number of people with education above a bachelor level grow as the city develops.

The college, she said, is doing its part to mould the workforce.

Most students are recruited from within a 200 kilometre radius of the city, she said. Once they graduate, many find work in the region.

"We feel that we're really a part of the solution to labour force demand in our region," Bansgrovesaid.

New regional hospital

The college is growing its health-care programs in preparation for Grande Prairie's new regional hospital, expected to open in 2019.

Students can train locally to become practical nurses, paramedicsandoccupational therapists, among other professions.

The new regional hospital will also include a built-in training space for students from the college.

Health-care professionals tend to stay in the communities in which they are trained, said Stacy Greening, senior operating officer at the Queen Elizabeth II hospital in Grande Prairie.

"The challenge is getting people exposed to the north," Greening said.

Representatives from the hospital recruit doctors and nurses from across Canada to keep up with staffing needs, she added. The hospital also recruits heavily from the local college.

In the past year, the hospital hired more than 30 new physicians representing nearly one-quarter of the physicians employed by the hospital.

"We are constantly recruiting," Greening said. "The competition to hire these qualified professionals is often tough nationally and internationally."

As of Feb. 1, nearly seven per cent of all positions at the city's current hospitalwere not filled.

The vacancy rate isn't unusual, said Alberta Health Service spokesperson Lisa Laferriere.

"Such facilities have significant staffing requirements, which we are constantly working to meet," Laferriere said in an email to CBC News."We are committed to actively and aggressively recruiting and retaining quality healthcare professionals."

AHSisdeveloping a plan for how to recruit enough staff to run the new hospital once it opens next year, she said.

More schools

The college is also honing in on its Bachelor of Education program, Bansgrove said.

As the city expands, surpassing a population of 63,000, school districtsare straining to stay ahead of the growth.

There are more people in Grande Prairie younger than five than there are people older than 65, according to Statistics Canada.

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The Grande Prairie Public School District has opened three new schools since 2016.

"It's our first year of not opening a new school, so it's a chance to catch our breath," said James Robinson, the assistant superintendent for programs and planning.

"But the reality is, we need to be continuing to look at the future."

Each new school requires a hiring spree and the district has been recruiting teachers from as far away as New Brunswick, Robinson said.

Roughly 20 per cent of teaching staff in the public school district are new, with less than five years experience.

Bansgrove said the combination of a soon-to-open hospital and an increasing number of schools has set a lofty target for the local college, as it adapts to changing workforce needs.

"We are punching above our weight,"shesaid. "We try very hard to respond to the labour force demand and the need of employers."

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