Powell River high school students will have more opportunities to earn post-secondary credits with an expanded dual credits program.
School District 47’s dual credits program, established in 2007 with Vancouver Island University (VIU), has allowed students to earn post-secondary credits in five trades areas including carpentry, culinary arts, automotive service technician, welding and hairdressing.
The expanded program offers students academic credits for university and helps the school district stem some of its declining enrolment.
“It’s the expansion of our dual credit program,” said Jay Yule, district superintendent of schools. “The way the grad program works now, it allows for a lot of freedom of choice, so if students plan correctly by the time they are in grade 12 they have a number of free electives they can choose.”
Yule said students can now continue on and take a semester worth of university courses during the following school year if they haven’t turned 19 years old by July 1.
The program is designed to help foster the transitions from high school to post-secondary and give students an idea of what university courses are like while they are still at high school, he said.
“These are academic dual credits,” said Yule. “Students could take psychology and they would get credit for Psychology 12 and a university credit.”
He said that while most students do not need the high school credit to graduate, the academic experience plus the free course credit for university provides students with an advantage.
The superintendent added that the district has also offered a limited amount of academic dual credit courses in various disciplines in the past, but now that list is expanding to offer more first-year university academic credits.
The district also offers students dual credit opportunities through its digital film school and Coast Mountain Academy.
For more information about the dual credits program, readers can visit the school district’s website.
