Diploma in Early Learning and Child Care

at Lakeland College - Vermilion Campus Canada

Through our program you’ll gain skills and experience to ensure industry and the environment can coexist. This means either reclaiming disturbed lands or minimizing industry’s effects on natural habitats

You’ll learn how to

• Classify, manage and conserve soils
• Recognize and understand a variety of ecosystems
• Do detailed site assessments
• Apply reclamation regulations, guidelines and techniques to disturbed lands

You’ll visit and study forested, mined and cultivated lands as well as native and reclaimed areas.

On field trips , you’ll see current industry practices and technologies. In hands-on field labs you’ll develop and practice more than 20 applied skills industry wants.

As you work towards your one-year certificate or two-year diploma, you’ll learn about:

• Human development
• Health, safety and nutrition to support child development
• How to create a creative and developmentally-appropriate curriculum and design a safe and inviting space for children
• How to support children with exceptionalities
• The business side of running a childcare practice.

Each semester has a practicum. Your third practicum is unique to Lakeland. You and your classmates will set up and run a play program. Together, you’ll:

• Create a parent handbook
• Plan the activities, snacks and schedule
• Create a dynamic theme for the space
• Put your theory into practice

• Take the next step in your environmental career with Lakeland's applied degree.
• Choose to major in either reclamation and remediation or monitoring and environmental protection. Get equipped to be a project manager, inspector, or specialist.
• Whether you come from a diploma or degree program, this applied degree will build on and add to your practical skills
• In the first year you’ll build advanced technical and field skills. You’ll also connect with industry on field trips.
• In the second year you’ll put your knowledge to work in an 8-month placement.
• You complete the program with a capstone presentation about your practicum.

A computer lab with specialized design software is just for your program. So is a plotter, a sample room and a work room. All are available 24 hours a day.

Along your two-year college journey, you’ll develop practical skills such as drafting and rendering.
You’ll also learn:

• Design fundamentals
• History
• Space planning
• Materials
• Sustainable building practices
• Residential construction
• Finishes

Combine your love of the outdoors with employable skills from Lakeland’s Applied Environmental Sciences major.

You now have 2 options:
Take the first year courses and earn a certificate or move into the 2nd year of the applied environmental major, or another of our environmental sciences majors.
 
You’ll start by learning a wide range of environmental concepts related to water, soil and plants. You start in the classroom, but you’ll be in outdoor labs within your first month.
Your training is fun, hands-on and useful. You'll apply and practice what you’ve learned using real-life situations. These are the same skills you’ll use throughout your career; skills that employers will notice. They include:

• Aquatic habitat assessments
• Wetlands & soil classification
• Water monitoring and sampling
• Environmental site assessment
• Plant identification

Set your career in the dairy industry in motion with Lakeland’s new animal science technology major.

 Through our dairy science major you’ll learn specialized dairy management skills. You’ll study:

• Production
• Herd management
• Nutrition
• Farm management
• Sustainability

You’ll learn hands-on and through student-managed activities. Those activities range from practical herd management to implementing new technologies. Our Dairy Learning Centre will be central to many of your learning experiences. You’ll investigate current industry events and trends.
 
In your second year, you’ll be a member of the Student-Managed Farm (SMF) dairy unit. Or, you’ll do a student-led practicum. Whatever your choice, you’ll understand multiple aspects of how to manage a dairy farm. The range goes from herd health to supervising employees to business financials.
 
You’ll graduate armed with knowledge and tools to return to the farm or to make your mark in another area of the dairy sector.

Launch your future in the livestock industry with Lakeland’s animal science livestock science major. You’ll gain a broad view of different sectors from both the production and business side.
 
Specialized livestock courses are also your student-managed team options. They are:

• Beef production
• Dairy production
• Sheep and goat production

In your first year,  you’ll choose either beef or dairy production. Which course you take determines one of your Student-Managed Farm powered by New Holland team options.  In second year you’ll take the other production course.

You’ll learn stockman’s practices as part of animal husbandry. Your courses will follow the production cycle from calving and lambing through to selling livestock. In addition to feeding, breeding and animal welfare, you’ll also study the livestock business. You’ll learn about key economics, business records and business plans.

You’ll develop essential skills such as:  

• Observing, reporting and assessing skills in case management situations  
• Building therapeutic relationships  
• Helping children and youth who have behavioural or learning difficulties  
• Supporting family interventions  
• Recognizing symptoms of abuse & addiction  
• Building resiliency  
• Working with children and youth in diverse setting

Support school-aged children on their educational journeys.

In our educational assistant program, you’ll learn to work with children:

• With different abilities
• One-on-one and in small groups
• In a variety of settings

You’ll learn:

• Positive behaviour supports
• Human development
• Sensory development
• How to support students with exceptionalities

Put what you earn to practice with a 4-week practicum each semester.

You’ll graduate with the skills you need to find a career in:

• Before and after school care
• Kindergartens
• Recreation and community centres
• Elementary, middle and high schools
• Respite care for special needs children
• Classroom as a teaching assistant

Our innovative program bridges agricultural and environmental science. As well, it merges the concerns of both the public and producers. Consumers want to know where and how their food is grown. Farmers and ranchers care about conservation and productivity.
 
Through the program, you’ll be at the forefront of best practices and certified production.

You’ll spend time in field labs honing skills related to:

• Soil science
• Water management
• Grasslands
• Livestock production
• Crop production

You’ll apply that soil, water and plant knowledge to create solutions for sustainable food production.You'll also learn through an industry practicum.

Your skill set will be sought after by:

• Producer associations
• Certified value chains
• Conservation groups
• Municipalities