On Thursday, November 4, both secondary school students and the general public will have a great opportunity to learn about the benefits, value and rewards offered by a college education. That day and evening, Conestoga presents its annual Visitor Information Program/College Information Program (VIP/CIP), in which 24 institutions from across Ontario are participating.
The week of November 1-5 is College Week in Ontario, so it's an ideal time to learn about these institutions, which offer everything from one-year certificates to apprenticeship training to three-year diplomas and four-year degrees, and even post-graduate programs. Ontario's public colleges and institutes annually serve 150,000 full-time students and close to one million part-time students, and employ approximately 30,000 people in 200 communities across the province.
The general public can visit the Conestoga Recreation Centre at the Doon campus in Kitchener at an open house from 6:30-8 p.m. to gather information and meet with representatives of all the participating institutions.
The daytime schedule on November 4 is for Grade 11 and 12 students from schools in midwestern Ontario who have pre-registered at their schools to attend the event. The program goes from 9 a.m.-2 p.m. and will attract more than 2,500 high school students from Waterloo Region, and Wellington, Perth and Huron counties. These students begin the day with a visit to the college information display booths at the Conestoga Recreation Centre at the Doon campus. Following this, each student attends two workshops on programs/career education areas offered by Conestoga. These workshops occupy the period from 9:45-11:30 a.m. and take place in classrooms throughout the campus.
After lunch, each student then attends two workshops presented by the participating institutions. Likewise located in rooms throughout the campus, these sessions occupy the time from 12:35-1:45 p.m. At 2 p.m. participating students return to the Recreation Centre for a wrap-up session, which includes presentation of a number of draw prizes.
Participating are Ontario's three institutes of technology and advanced learning (Conestoga, Humber and Sheridan), 17 colleges of applied arts and technology (Boreal, Cambrian, Canadore, Centennial, Durham, Fanshawe, George Brown, Georgian, Lambton, Loyalist, Mohawk, Niagara, St. Clair, St. Lawrence, Sault, Seneca and Sir Sandford Fleming), an institute of health sciences (Michener) and three agricultural colleges affiliated with the University of Guelph (Alfred, Kemptville and Ridgetown).
CONTACT: Jan Stroh, jstroh@conestogac.on.ca