{{primarysources, date=June 2008 Columbia College is a

vocational education Vocational education is education that prepares people to work as a technician or to take up employment in a skilled craft or trade as a tradesperson or artisan. Vocational Education can also be seen as that type of education given to an i ...

institution located in

Calgary Calgary ( ) is the largest city in the western Canadian province of Alberta and the largest metro area of the three Prairie Provinces. As of 2021, the city proper had a population of 1,306,784 and a metropolitan population of 1,481,806, maki ...

, Canada, offering certificate and diploma qualifications in a range of subjects. Government-funded

scholarship A scholarship is a form of financial aid awarded to students for further education. Generally, scholarships are awarded based on a set of criteria such as academic merit, diversity and inclusion, athletic skill, and financial need. Scholars ...

s are offered to students without the means to pay the fees.

History

Established in the late 1980s, the college was originally known as "Columbia Institute of Canada". Founded by Tom and Nola Snell the school opened with a small range of programs primarily aimed at helping local

disabled Disability is the experience of any condition that makes it more difficult for a person to do certain activities or have equitable access within a given society. Disabilities may be cognitive, developmental, intellectual, mental, physical, ...

individuals sustain employment and upgrade their existing education. Over the years the College has expanded its programs to include a variety of professional programs in addition to its roots in Academic Upgrading and English as a

second language A person's second language, or L2, is a language that is not the native language ( first language or L1) of the speaker, but is learned later. A second language may be a neighbouring language, another language of the speaker's home country, or a ...

College diplomas

Columbia offers both one-year certificate programs and two-year diploma programs. Some two-year academic diplomas can be completed in as few as 12 calendar months.

Accelerated education

Columbia College provides accelerated adult education programs. Students can complete up to one academic year of

post-secondary education Tertiary education, also referred to as third-level, third-stage or post-secondary education, is the educational level following the completion of secondary education. The World Bank, for example, defines tertiary education as including univers ...

during every six months they attend Columbia College.

Columbia Learning Society

In 1998 the College created The Columbia Learning Society to raise money in order to provide scholarships to learners in financial need who wish to attend the College. The society received authority from the

Canadian government The government of Canada (french: gouvernement du Canada) is the body responsible for the federal administration of Canada. A constitutional monarchy, the Crown is the corporation sole, assuming distinct roles: the executive, as the ''Crown-in ...

in the winter of 2002 to issue tax deductible receipts for donations. Columbia College continues to make a substantial donation each year to the society, enabling it to hire staff and offer educational scholarships for free courses to adult learners in need. The society also offers educational scholarships for free weekend tutoring sessions to young children. Since 2002 the society has provided scholarships (valued at $240,000) to over 1,100 learners.

Future plans

In 1997, the College began working on a plan to deliver free education to learners around the world. This will take many years to implement fully. Initial courses will be designed for learners in

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and

secondary education Secondary education or post-primary education covers two phases on the International Standard Classification of Education scale. Level 2 or lower secondary education (less commonly junior secondary education) is considered the second and final ph ...

External links

Columbia College website
Education in Calgary