North Island College - Ministry of Advanced Education - Government ...

Institutional Accountability Plan and Report 2011/12NIC’s Response: Building on SuccessEnvironmental scanning, including town hall meetings and community feedback, has revealed thefollowing priorities for the College going forward:New curriculum, programs and services that align with the shifting occupational structure of theNorth Island region will continue to be developed. These will be aimed at meeting the needs ofthe region’s communities and businesses, especially toward training and transitioning primaryindustry workers as regional economies and labour market demands continue to shift. A newregional delivery model to optimize community-based program delivery has been developed andprograms will continue to be offered on a rotational basis at different campuses to meet locallabour force development needs.Ongoing expansion of NIC’s foundation in distributed learning recognizes the learning andservice needs of the region’s growing mature student population and the College’s vastgeographic service area. Growing demand for on-line and blended access options for coursesand, entire programs, is expected going forward.In recognition of the region’s low secondary school and post-secondary completion rates, lowpost-secondary participation rates and declining youth populations, NIC will continue to focuson increasing access to post-secondary education and training through the flexible delivery ofprograms and services.NIC will seek to attract and engage non-participating populations by educating its communitiesabout the value of post-secondary education. Pathways from secondary school to college,further education, training and employment will continue to be developed on an ongoing basisto illustrate this value.NIC will continue to partner with the region’s Aboriginal communities to provide localeducation and training opportunities that recognizes their history and culture. Services designedspecifically to promote Aboriginal student success accompany program development.Increased service learning, internship, cooperative education and practicum training will providegreater opportunity to increase student connections to the region’s communities.Program advisory committees with representation from local business and communities willcontinue to ensure primary program relevancy to local employment needs.Connections to our local communities will continue to be strengthened through partnershipswith community agencies and businesses.Applied research activities in conjunction with community and industry partners will beimportant to enhance NIC’s role in community economic development and growth.The financial health of NIC will be critical to its ability to meet the learning needs of its students.Careful resource stewardship, expansion of revenue generation activities and increasingfundraising capacity will support the institution’s development. Industry and researchpartnerships linked to funding are viewed as key initiatives for increasing revenue in the future.The following sections provide tactical and operational updates that demonstrate how the College’seducational divisions have been working toward these priorities over the 2011/12 planning year,including key educational and service initiatives planned going forward. Divisional tactical plans for yearone and year two of the 2011-2015 strategic planning process can be viewed in full detail on-line athttp://www.nic.bc.ca/about_us/strategic_plan/view.aspx.24