Thanks to a $250,000 grant from the Ministry of Advanced Education, NVIT students will be learning a little more about what it takes to be a student.
The post-secondary institution received the quarter million in funding through an Aboriginal Service Plan (ASP).
NVIT president Ken Tourand said this funding will be used to support elders, as well as the school’s Success Centre and a new, required class — Strategies for Success 101.
This new course will essentially be replacing orientation day at NVIT, Tourand said, but the class goes deeper than that.
“It teaches you how to study, how to use the library, how to use the different college resources that we have at NVIT,” Tourand said. “What we’re hoping it will do is increase the chances and likelihood of students succeeding through their courses and graduating.”
He said NVIT elders will be involved in the class as well.
Tourand said this class is expected to be a major help to students, especially those who are new to college.
It will be a first year course that most students will be taking this year.
“This is kind of the catch-up year that everybody’s going through it,” Tourand said.
He said fourth year students with a high enough grade point average will be exempt from taking this course.
This year, NVIT’s Success Centre — a student support resource — will have a new dimension to it that will help students determine their career paths and find job placements, Tourand said.
He said the hope is to use some of the funding for a position that will help students find work.
He said this aspect of the Success Centre will help students with resume writing and preparing for job interviews as well.
Tourand said NVIT received about $200,000 last year from the ASP.
ASPs are part of the Ministry of Advanced Education’s Aboriginal Post-Secondary Education Training Policy and Framework and Action Plan, which was launched in 2012, a press release from the provincial government stated.
