Two new courses for Canadore

Canadore College cleared the first major hurdle in their quest of offering two new programs for the fall 2007 session, as the board of governors passed a motion of support Tuesday.

The new two-year programs are 'Recreation Therapist' and 'Sports Conditioning' and have tentatively been placed on the Fall 2007 course calendar pending funding approval.

“What’s really quite exciting is that both will be original programs within the college system, should we receive funding approval for them,” states Jim Connell Vice President, Academic and Student Services.

Connell says board approval is the major hurdle in the process, but moving forward the college still has two final steps left in the process.

“It goes to two places, one is the Credential Validation Service, and that looks at the sort of program curriculum and assures essentially that it meet the standards,” he explains.

“The other is to the Ministry of Colleges and Universities for actual funding.”

Connell says he doesn’t anticipate any roadblocks in securing funding because the board provides a high degree of scrutiny for all new program proposals before rendering their decision.

“Once it goes through that process it has (historically) received approval from both CVS and the ministry,” he says, “so we don’t anticipate any difficulties there.”

The college is also working with several universities, including their major partner Nipissing University, to reach articulation agreements for advance standings for those graduates who wish to pursue recreation-related university degrees.

Connell says that the new programs will respond to the needs of local industry and students.

He added that he hopes the process doesn’t take long.