Hoop hopefuls

Students and staff shot free-throws for prizes at a Douglas College Vancouver Grizzlies Fan Club promotion on February 10 in the concourse. The club is organized by the College Foundation and Athletic Department. It offers reduced-price NBA ticket packages with partial proceeds to support College athletics. All ticket packages purchased by May 5 make the buyer eligible for a Grizzlies Starter jacket draw. The club will also offer an NCAA tournament pool beginning March 12 in the concourse. For

more information visit the Foundation Office (Room 4002) or Room 1317 in Athletics.

Skills Now funds D.C. projects

Douglas College has received funding for Skills Now Innovations projects through the Ministry of Skills, Training and Labour.

A proposal requesting funding was presented late last year to meet the final deadline of December 30 for Innovations projects. Six Douglas College projects were previously approved in 1994, out of 14 submitted by the College. Funds were available one-time-only in either 1994/95 or 95/96.

The first set of four to be accepted were forwarded in July. They were: $40,000 for Prior Learning Assessment pilot projects, primarily within the Department of Child, Family and Community Studies; $12,500 to develop an articulation process linking studies in Coquitlam secondary schools with Coaching and Physical Education courses at the College; $12,500 for an articulation process linking studies in Maple Ridge

secondary schools, and subsequently those in Coquitlam, with College Commerce and Business programs; $8,000 to offer College-level academic courses at New Westminster Secondary School for access by students on a concurrent studies basis.

Two other submissions presented in October were also approved. The first was $90,000 for three Prior Learning Assessment projects offered through the College. The second was $38,200 for Specific Training Assistance and Remediation of Skills (STARS), a project which allows students to access specific academic-skills development programs through computer-based instruction.

Phase I of a project to implement Interactive Television/Video Conferencing has received tentative funding approval of $88,000. Phase II will be part of submissions for next year’s Innovations funds, although the final

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amount of funds available to Douglas College has not been approved.

“These funds have allowed the College to implement some new activities that we couldn’t normally fund,” says Mia Gordon, Vice-President of College Development. “We’ve been able to do some innovative kinds of things and implement some very good ideas within the College.”

General guidelines for the types of projects the Ministry was seeking included those which focus primarily on the learner and the learning process, those which concentrate on employment skills and ones which encourage innovative program delivery systems. Other considerations were programs which increased cost effectiveness, those which supported full participation of equity group members and which generally increased educational effectiveness. ll