Paige Thornborough, coordinator of Youth Initiatives discusses the benefits of dual credit program for high school students, enabling them to earn additional credits during their high school years. Photo by Ma. Janine Doroca.
Lethbridge College is well known for providing both high-quality education and the opportunity to grow. One of the programs the college is proud of is the dual credit program. This program reflects the college’s unwavering dedication to giving high school students the opportunity for academic and personal growth. Led by Paige Thornborough, coordinator of youth initiatives at the college, this program allows high school students to get a head start on their post-secondary journey by taking college courses while they’re still in high school.
“The dual credit program allows high school students to explore potential career pathways and opportunities while they are still in school to better identify what areas they are passionate about. It’s an awesome opportunity for them to explore the college learning environment and to get a little bit of experience in the post-secondary world. They’re also able to access a lot of fantastic resources as well,” said Thornborough.
Currently, there are over 40 different dual credit courses offered at the college. Spanning across all the different academic centres, from trades business to science and arts.
“The majority of dual credit courses are designed in a format where students can learn from anywhere at any time asynchronously. There are a handful of courses that do invite students on campus for lab experiences, but most of those learning opportunities have been remotely online,” said Thornborough.
While some of the courses may require on-campus labs, most of the learning opportunities have seamlessly shifted to online courses.
Seamus Scott, a dual credit student from Chinook High School expressed his enthusiasm describing the hands-on experience and the additional credits as the main benefits.
“They also lead you to know what you’re expected to do because this would be introductions into the trades. It shows you a bit of welding, a bit of HVAC, some plumbing, carpentry. It kind of gives you an exploration into the trades world,” said Scott.
Correspondingly, Tyson Fettig, another dual credit student from W.R Myers High School, agrees with Scott that the program has helped him enhance his ability to weld and gives him opportunities to explore career options.
“It expanded my horizon on how much I like welding, because before in school we had chop class where you could weld. That didn’t teach me too much about how I wanted to weld, but then I came here last year and it expanded my horizon on that,” shared by Fetting.
Dual Credit students are considered full-time students at the college and they are granted access to almost all the same benefits and services the rest of the students have.
“Everything from our learning café, library services, accessibility services to academic and career advising, dual credit students can access all those same services to set themselves up for success. The only service that’s not included is Wellness services.” said Thornborough.
As Lethbridge College continues to nurture this program, they are committed to empowering high school students, fostering a generation of skilled professionals that is prepared to succeed in the future.
