Aurora College in Fort Smith has announced that they will be closing down all Community Learning Centres later this year.
This decision was made unanimously by the Aurora College Board of Directors. Their choice was made after an overview of enrolment numbers and completion rates, where they saw that both numbers were drastically decreasing. They found that, as this current model has been in place for several decades, it has become ineffective, outdated, and prohibitively expensive.
Joseph Handely, the Chairperson of the Aurora College Board of Governors, said that it is the responsibility of the Board “to ensure that Aurora College continues to be efficient, effective, and sustainable, especially as the College transforms to a polytechnic university. The ongoing low enrolments and completion rates at the Community Learning Centres are evidence that the current way of delivering academic upgrading is no longer working, so changes must be made to ensure the College continues to meet the current and future needs of learners, communities, and the Northern labour market.”
The College has said that it will continue to offer academic upgrading options through its three campuses, as well as through online courses. To support the new focus, Aurora College is withdrawing from the partnership with Inclusion NWT, which operates the Yellowknife Literacy Outreach Centre, as of June 30th, and will no longer be offering literacy-level programming.
This change could end up impacting at least thirty-one indeterminate and term employees. There are other casual positions that will not be renewed. Employees who will be impacted have already been contacted.
