College of the Rockies grad Greg Snell with traditional Aboriginal face paint in Australia.
Graduating from an internationally focused program at a British Columbia community college helped Greg Snell land a good job – in fact, The Best Job in the World.
Mr. Snell, who completed the Adventure Tourism Business Operations program at College of the Rockies in 2009, was awarded the official Best Job in the World position by Tourism Australia last year.
The 28-year-old from Oshawa, Ont., beat more than 600,000 applicants from 196 countries to become a wildlife caretaker who lived on an island – Kangaroo Island, no less – spending six months snorkelling with sea lions and wallowing with wallabies, videoing and blogging his experience.
The college, based in Cranbrook, B.C., takes special pride in graduates such as Mr. Snell, as well as faculty who go out into the world and bring international students to its classes and campuses, which are spread out in the Kootenay region of that province. Before going to Australia, Mr. Snell worked on a College of the Rockies-supported internship in Ecuador, focusing on sustainable development.
"We have a unique flavour," says Patricia Bowron, executive director for international and regional development for the College of the Rockies. "We're a relatively small, rural institution. We take a strategic approach to international outreach."
Though it has just 2,500 students and 295 full-time staff, the B.C. school has been racking up awards for its international work, both in exposing its students and faculty to the world and in bringing foreign students to B.C. for a Canadian experience.
Earlier this year, the college won the Gold Internationalization Excellence Award from the Association of Canadian Community Colleges. The prize recognizes colleges that develop international programs and strategies.
And Ms. Bowron says she just accepted another award, this one a silver medal from the World Federation of Colleges and Polytechnics, recognizing the Western Canada school for its social development work.
The college worked with Kenya's health ministry to develop a health advancement program aimed primarily at mothers and young children.
"It's capacity-building work," explains Graham Knipfel, manager for international projects and partnerships at the school. The work included developing a new short course in emergency obstetrics and newborn care, and in boosting local knowledge of life-saving techniques.
In the first round of training, which began last year, the percentage of trainees with advanced life-saving knowledge in the clinic's target region increased from to 94 per cent from 11 per cent, he said.
Reaching out internationally is important for Canada's community colleges, says Paul Brennan, vice-president for international partnerships at Colleges and Institutes Canada.
"Everyone benefits. International students on our campuses enrich our classrooms with different perspectives, experiences and cultures. Teachers and Canadian students who get the opportunity to go abroad are permanently enriched by seeing other parts of the world," he says.
Mr. Brennan notes that international students and the export of Canada's educational services bring more than $8-billion into Canada's economy each year. A study undertaken for the Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development Canada estimated that in 2010, the total expenditure of long-term international students (those staying at least six months) in Ontario alone amounted to $2.9-billion.
Linda Franklin, president and chief executive officer of Colleges Ontario, says making a mark internationally also helps showcase our own skilled work force, and add to it, too.
"International outreach helps us attract talented and skilled people to this province," she says. "It also provides students with opportunities to enrich their postsecondary education by studying abroad."
"While they are here, international students add to the cultural enrichment of local communities and help provide an enhanced classroom experience for Canadian students," says Kausar Thomas, Colleges Ontario's senior research and policy adviser.
"International students bring different ways of looking at problems and opportunities to our classrooms. They work on project teams with our domestic students and 'internationalize' the learning experience for everybody," Ms. Thomas says.
Encouraging international students to study in the Rockies helps the region become more culturally diverse, Ms. Bowron says. "We recruit international students; that's a way for all our students to start to have an international experience."
While only 7.2 per cent of the College of the Rockies's students are from abroad, the school encourages its students and faculty to take part in international exchange programs.
"We have approximately 5 per cent of our employees working abroad. Some are studying, some are consulting, some are offering workshops," Ms. Bowron says.
"You know what they say about us: We play well with the others."
Other international focus
Want to go to school and see the world too? Try a community college, says Colleges and Institutes's Mr. Brennan.
"The majority of Canadian colleges now offer programs with an international focus. There is something for everyone," he says.
Here are a few examples:
- Holland College of Prince Edward Island has been active in in China for 20 years and now has several Chinese partners delivering its courses and programs there, with 1,200 Chinese students paying tuition to the school.
- The Greater Toronto Area's Seneca College trains commercial pilots in many countries, and Alberta's SAIT (Southern Alberta Institute of Technology) and NAIT (Northern Alberta of Technology) have lucrative contracts to upgrade professionals in the oil and gas sectors in many countries.
- Toronto's George Brown College has been sending its Early Childhood Education students to do their internships in Jamaica for about 15 years.
- The Mining School of Chile and many Indian Polytechnics still have the Canadian flag on their institution sign at the entrance, acknowledge the contributions of colleges and CÉGEPs such as Cambrian and Abitibi-Témiscamingue to their programs.
- In 2013–14, 1,075 international students from 114 countries were enrolled in programs at Algonquin College's Ottawa Valley campuses. At the same time, another 1,965 international students were registered for language training. Algonquin has partnerships based in China, India, Montenegro and Kuwait.
- Next September, Northern College in Timmins will enter a new joint venture partnership with Chongqing Industry Polytechnic College (CIPC) in China that will see Northern's programming offered at CIPC. The Chinese college is in Chongqing, one of the world's fastest-growing cities, with 30 million residents.
- Ontario's Fleming College has a new agreement with China's Yellow River Conservancy Technical Institute (YRCTI) to offer student and faculty exchanges, focusing on studies in water, water research, geographic information systems (GIS) and the environment. YRTCI students will come to Canada for one-year exchanges starting in 2016, with an exploratory two-week visit from Yellow River faculty and students next April.