Team members were presented with jackets, and also assembled for a group photo, before departing for their flight to the Lower Mainland.

The Peace Region team is comprised of 20 competitors, including middle school, high school, and post-secondary students. Qualifiers were selected based on their performances at the Peace Region competition in March, held at NLC and Dawson Creek Secondary School.

Members of the Peace Region team competing at the provincials include:

Junior Division
·  Spaghetti Bridge: McKayla Dawson, Leah Thomson, Aaron Glover, Rachel McPhail
·  Gravity Cars: Jarrod Krane, Keatton Tiernan

Secondary Division
·  TV/Video Production: Bryan VanGenne, William MacElheren
·  Architectural CAD Design: Kelsey Wozniak
·  Cabinetmaking: Lucas Stratuliak
·  Carpentry: Marcus Bullert
·  Cosmetology: Carmen Mitchell
·  Welding: Austin Biddulph

Post-Secondary Division
·  Culinary Arts: Casey Gairdner
·  Aircraft Maintenance: Kristin Thackeray, Kristen Piazzini, Jeff Quock
·  Carpentry: Kyle Turner
·  Cosmetology: Kaley Garant
·  Welding: Branden Bowerman

Contributions were received from several organizations towards the travel costs for the event: EnCana Natural Gas, School District 59 Parent Advisory Committee, School Districts 59 and 60, and the Northern Lights College Foundation.

The provincial championships will be held on Wednesday, April 18 at Tradex in Abbotsford. For more information or results, go to www.skillscanada.bc.ca.

The PCP program is the second level of paramedic training in British Columbia, and meets national occupational competency standards set out by the Paramedic Association of Canada. The program is accredited by the Canadian Medical Association.

The program operates on a distributed learning, part-time model that is comprised of three components: independent study online, which started in late March; a series of weekend workshops at NLC from May 25 to December; and three months of ambulance and in-hospital practicum starting in January 2013.

“The PCP program has a format that allows students to work and attend the program concurrently,” said Steven Mills, PCP Program Manager for the JIBC’s School of Health Sciences. “The program is intensive and utilizes a hands-on, applied, experiential learning model. It’s about enhancing health care in the north, and bringing new services and opportunities to our communities.”

Program components include intravenous therapy and other drug therapies, and a focus on cardiac, respiratory and trauma patients. The course will provide local ambulance personnel with a higher level of training and ability to treat patients.

The PCP program will complement the health care programs already offered in NLC’s Health Sciences Building – Health Care Assistant certificate, and Practical Nursing diploma. Both of those NLC programs are currently accepting applications for the next intakes starting in September.

Instructors for the program, Lana Wild and Debra Roberts, have a combined 25 years experience as paramedics. JIBC Regional Training Coordinator Greg Wright, with 35 years experience as a paramedic, oversees delivery of the program. As well, local BC Ambulance staff members will participate.

Butterfly: Cole Comeau, Travis Stevens and Calum Rounthwaite

Enterprise: James Dawe and Michael Bourgoin

Horse: Teresa McNabb and Andrea Kurjata

FORT ST. JOHN – Students in the Industrial Instrumentation Foundation Trades program at the Fort St. John Campus of Northern Lights College showed their creativity during a recent piping project.

Instructor Stacy Smith asked the students to construct three-dimensional (geometric) shapes that could be pressure tested up to and hold 30 psi.

The projects yielded some impressive results, including a reproduction of the original Starship Enterprise, a horse, and a butterfly.

“The students this year have produced some extremely difficult and creative projects. However, the key part of the project is that every connection has to hold when the pressure test is done,” said Smith.

For more information on Trades and Apprenticeship programs at NLC, check the website at nlc.bc.ca or call the College at 1-866-463-6652.

More than 170 students – ranging from middle school students to post-secondary Apprentices – are expected to compete in the two-day event. It is believed that the Peace Region competition will have the second largest number of competitors in the province.

A new competition this year is Gravity Car, where middle school competitors will see who has the fastest car on a 24-foot track. As well, returning after a two-year absence is TV/Video Production competition where teams of two students have five hours to create a video on a topic that is not revealed until the day of the competition.
The schedule of events is as follows:
Junior Skills: Thursday, March 8. Spaghetti Bridge and Gravity Cars, in the gymnasium at NLC’s Dawson Creek Campus.
Secondary Skills: Thursday, March 8. Cabinetmaking, CAD Architectural Design and Cosmetology at Dawson Creek Secondary School (DCSS) South Peace Campus; and Carpentry, TV/Video Production and Welding at NLC.
Post-Secondary (Apprentice) Skills: Friday, March 9. Aircraft Maintenance Engineer, Carpentry, Culinary Arts (Secondary), Culinary Arts (Post-Secondary) and Welding at NLC; Cosmetology/Hairstyling at NLC’s South Peace Campus, behind DCSS.

Registration is at 8:30 am each day, with competition beginning at 9 am. Awards will be presented at 4 pm each day.
The Skills Canada Peace Region competition is organized by staff members from NLC, and School Districts 59 and 60. Sponsorship is provided by Encana, the Industry Training Authority, and the DCSS Parent Advisory Council.
Gold medalists in each division have the opportunity to travel to Abbotsford for the Provincial Skills competition.  Last year, Andrew Lines, an AME student at NLC, captured the provincial title, and a silver medal at the Skills Canada national championships.

Skills Canada is a national organization that promotes excellence in skilled trades and technologies by organizing competitions at the Middle School, Secondary and Post-Secondary (Apprentice) levels.

The donation was received

Murray Slezak, Donna Kane, Rejean Tetrault, Carson Newby

by the Northern Lights College Foundation and will be used to support Northern Opportunities.

From the donation, $25,000 will be used for continued program development and special projects and $10,000 will be used to provide scholarships to Dual Credit students in the Oil and Gas Field Operations program at the Fort St. John Campus.

Shell’s contribution to Northern Opportunities is their initial contribution to the partnership. The funds will be used for continued program development and special projects.

“The Northern Opportunities Dual Credit program has resulted in a significant increase in high school graduates in northeastern British Columbia,” said Murray Slezak, Social Performance Team Leader for Shell. “Ultimately, this program improves community, family and individual well-being in addition to supplying a larger, qualified local workforce.”

Northern Opportunities is a partnership that represents a regional collaboration of industry, Aboriginal, education and government organizations.

“Northern Opportunities is pleased to announce its newest partner, Shell Canada Energy, and acknowledge the contribution towards supporting its mission of enhancing opportunities for students to succeed in high school, pursue post-secondary education and build rewarding careers in the Northeast,” said Cheryl Anthony of Northern Opportunities.

The cheque presentation was made on Feb. 7 at NLC’s Fort St. John Campus. Donna Kane, executive director of the NLC Foundation, accepted the cheque from Shell’s Slezak; Rejean Tetrault, Northeastern British Columbia Regional Operations Manager; and Carson Newby, Community Affairs.

Student awards are administered by the NLC Foundation. For more information on the NLC Foundation, check the NLC website at nlc.bc.ca or contact Donna Kane at 250-784-7613 or email dkane@nlc.bc.ca.

Did you know clinical experience in a northern, rural B.C. community is vital retaining a newly-trained doctor or nurse to practice in the north?

Health care providers are a critical need in northern rural B.C. To help address the shortage, theUniversityofNorthern British Columbia’s (UNBC) Northern Medical Program Trust (NMPT) provides funding for medical students in the NMP and Family Nurse Practitioner students to pursue rural clinical placements as part of their training.

The NMPT is supported by northern B.C. communities and companies like Encana Corporation, Spectra Energy and Canadian Natural Resources Limited. The trust provides financial support to the tune of about $150,000 a year to students in the NMP and Family Nurse Practitioner program. Students receive cash for rural clinical placements that are part of their educational program. Today, the NMPT endowment stands at about $6.5 million.

Are you a medical or nursing student at UNBC? Interested in a clinical placement in a northern B.C. community? Nursing and medical students attending UNBC are eligible to apply for funding to pursue their rural practical experience. The level of funding varies from year to year and according to the type of clinical experience, but the top amount – about $4000 – goes annually to students who wish to complete a full year of medical school in either Fort St. John or Terrace. To learn more visit http://www.unbc.ca/nmp/welcome.html.

For more information, or to support the Northern Medical Programs Trust, visit www.unbc.ca/giving.

Automotive Service Technician

81 converged on Northern Lights College on May 11 for the annual Dual Credit Day event.

Dual Credit Day provides students with the opportunity to experience their choice of three program areas available to secondary school students for Dual Credit study. The event was held at NLC’s Fort St. John Campus and North Peace Secondary School.

Participants selected from numerous program areas, including: Applied Business Technology, Automotive Service Technician, Business Management, Carpentry, Electrician, Cosmetology, Early Childhood Education and Care, Environmental Practice, Geomatics Engineering Technology, Health Care, Heavy Duty/Commercial Transport Technician, Industrial Instrumentation, Oil and Gas Field Operations, Power Engineering, Social Services Worker Diploma, University Arts and Sciences (English, Psychology, Film, Chemistry), Welding, and Wind Turbine Maintenance Technician.

Electrician

Dual Credit Day gives students hands-on experience to discover information about specific careers. Students learned they could start the transition to a career in Grade 11 or 12, earning secondary and post-secondary school credits while still in secondary school.

It’s great to have so many of our students on the Northern Lights College campus to experience a day in the life of a college student. It gives the students exposure to different careers and helps to set goals. This day is an important part of getting our students career and college ready, said Brian Campbell, district principal of Careers and International Education for SD 60.

Event sponsors included Encana, School Districts 60 and 81, and Northern Opportunities.

The event is a huge undertaking for the College, with participation by a large number of people, including program instructors and current students who helped lead the sessions, volunteers who signed out safety equipment and served lunch to the visiting students, and personnel from Facilities, Information Technology, Food Services, and Student Recruitment departments.

For more information on Dual Credit programs, students should contact their secondary school counsellor. For more information on programs available at NLC, call nlc.bc.ca.

Automotive Service Technician, Health Care and Electrician were three of the programs in which Grade 9 students from School Districts 60 and 81 participated during Dual Credit Day at the Fort St. John Campus of Northern Lights College.