Durham College officials have added four new programs this year and expanded others, due to demand for post-secondary education.
According to Mary Blanchard, associate vice-president, academic planning, the new programs are event management, hospitality skills, activation in coordination in gerontology and journalism-electronic media.
The college is in a very high growth area in Durham Region, she says.
“More and more employers are expecting their new employees to have some kind of post-secondary training,” Blanchard says. “Growth is very important to us.”
She says the new programs provide students with more choice.
“This is particularly important for local students since they don’t need to incur the expense of going out of town for their program of choice,” Blanchard adds.
More than 11,000 full-time students enrolled at Durham College for the 2014-2015 year.
According to the Paul Bishop, executive director, strategic enrolment services, Durham College had almost a three per cent increase of student enrolment between fall of 2013 and fall of 2014.
Blanchard says in addition to the new programs class time on some courses has been expanded to 8 p.m., but adds some programs might run until 10 p.m.
The college considered the need to expand the hours on the Student Services Building or school offices, due to the expansion of some programs, but have decided not to do so.
“We may do it if we feel it’s necessary,” she says.
But she ensures all students’ schedules will not always be extended into the evening, so there are times of the week they can use college services.
Blanchard said more programs will be added to Durham College for the 2015-2016 year.
