{"id":3361,"date":"2012-05-08T19:57:40","date_gmt":"2012-05-09T02:57:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/?p=3361"},"modified":"2012-05-22T12:29:23","modified_gmt":"2012-05-22T19:29:23","slug":"learning-skills-cuts-will-affect-trades-students-says-faculty-member","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/2012\/05\/08\/learning-skills-cuts-will-affect-trades-students-says-faculty-member\/","title":{"rendered":"Learning skills cuts will affect trades students, says faculty member"},"content":{"rendered":"

A faculty member in trades at Camosun\u2019s Interurban campus is concerned about how the recent cancellation of the Learning Skills Program (LSP) could affect his students.<\/p>\n

According to Albert van Akker, program leader of the college\u2019s architectural trades and carpentry program, the college\u2019s targeting of the LSP in its 2012\/2013 budget cuts could have long-lasting ramifications for students who used the services to learn how to study properly, manage their time, and strengthen academic weaknesses.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a program that is vital for a lot of the students,\u201d says van Akker, \u201cand if they can\u2019t get the type of service that the learning skills team has been providing, it is going to be the difference; they are simply not going to be able to succeed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Every year roughly 100 Interurban trades students attend the workshops that learning skills counsellor Zack Zajchowski holds. He also sees approximately 50 trades students for one-on-one appointments.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou do have to have your theory underpinning your practice; students do have to do the paper-and-pen types of tests and so the Learning Skills becomes a piece that is needed,\u201d says Zajchowski.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Many students used the college's learning skills program (photo courtesy Camosun College).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Camosun is trying to offset the college\u2019s current debt of $2.5 million by making staff reductions and program cuts to the tune of $500,000. The college claims that the programs affected, such as the Applied Communication Program, were those with least student impact.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Learning Skills reduction contributed approximately $220,000 to the overall reduction target,\u201d says Nicole Greengoe, director, student services and registrar. \u201cAll decisions regarding reductions within student services were exceedingly difficult to make and were made within the context of how many students would the reduction impact, what risks were associated with the reduction, and how would the targeted reductions influence our ability to conduct mission critical business for students and for the college?\u201d<\/p>\n

Van Akker stresses that students who previously used learning skills services are going to be at an academic disadvantage now because many don\u2019t have proper study techniques, which can drastically affect grades and eventual wages.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese people are potentially being marginalized to a lower income for a much longer portion of their career,\u201d says van Akker, \u201cor their entire career, because they can\u2019t advance, get through the training, and get the certification that\u2019s going to allow them to command a journeyman rate.\u201d<\/p>\n

It is unlikely that LSP would be reintroduced anytime soon, but according to Greengoe it may be considered if the budget ever permits.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt goes without saying that we are very, very saddened by the reduction to Learning Skills and those employees who deliver this service, and we very much hope that we will be able to reintroduce learning skills services and courses should our budgets and\/or strategic priorities allow,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

According to Zajchowski, the learning skills program at Interurban is well known amongst similar programs across the country.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are a flagship of learning skills across Canada,\u201d claims Zajchowski, \u201cand even outside the country.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A faculty member in trades at Camosun\u2019s Interurban campus is concerned about how the recent cancellation of the Learning Skills Program (LSP) could affect his students. According to Albert van Akker, program leader of the college\u2019s architectural trades and carpentry program, the college\u2019s targeting of the LSP in its 2012\/2013 budget cuts could have long-lasting […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":3362,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3361","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-webexclusive","category-campus"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3361","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3361"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3361\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3369,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3361\/revisions\/3369"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3362"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3361"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3361"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3361"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}