Diploma in Environmental Sciences - Environmental Conservation Reclamation

at Lakeland College - Vermilion Campus Canada

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

Ecosystems and biodiversity are at the heart of conservation and restoration ecology (CARE).
The acronym fits. As a CARE graduate you’ll be making a difference for plants, soils, water and wildlife. Not just for now, but for future generations.

How you’ll do it is by learning practical field skills. Enough skills you'll be able to work in the field between 1st and 2nd year.
In second year, you’ll focus on best management practices and stewardship techniques. You’ll learn how to renew, restore and or conserve anything from grasslands to forest.

Field labs, outdoor classrooms, if where you practice [applied skills].  Some examples include:

• Identify critical habitat requirements for plants and animals
• Use environmental standards to classify wetland, forest and grassland
• Assess, inventory and map disturbed and undisturbed ecosystems
• Apply restoration techniques to real rural and urban landscapes
• Collect field data and report per industry standards

As a graduate you’re work-force ready. You also qualify for an Alberta Institute of Agrologists or the Alberta Society of Professional Biologists designations.

Gain knowledge and skills through agronomy, production, precision farming and financial management classes.
Your learning isn’t confined to classrooms. You’ll learn in the field, by going to industry events and by hearing from local producers.
 
Your real world learning comes after your first year. You choose between:

• An industry practicum
• The Student-Managed Farm – Powered by New Holland

Whatever your choice, you’ll put theory into practice. You’ll have the chance to evaluate agronomic, marketing and financial decisions in real world situations.
As a crop technology graduate, you’re prepared to run your own farm or work in the retail agriculture sector.

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.

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

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 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

Environmental monitoring and protection emphasizes water quality protection, a growing area of employment and environmental concern.  You'll learn how to protect and sustainably manage both water and land resources through field procedures and best practices such as protecting surface water and riparian habitats. 

Whether on a field trip or in a lab, your hands-on training uses modern field equipment to learn how to do full environmental monitoring, field surveys and protection programs for water and soilsstudents measure water flow.  You’ll be job ready on two fronts: practical job skills and industry-required safety certification. That includes safe ATV and boat operation.

You’ll develop employable skills in environmental sampling, site assessment and waste management. They include:

• Surface water, ground water, air, vegetation and soil monitoring & sampling techniques
• Field techniques in biomonitoring and habitat assessment
• Phase I and II site assessments in upstream oil and gas, commercial and industrial settings

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

Break ground for an agricultural business career at Lakeland College.

Start agribusiness by choosing where you want to focus:

• Crops
• Livestock
• Marketing

 Whatever your stream, you’ll grow your agricultural and business knowledge. You'll:

• Evaluate new and future technologies for agriculture
• Develop commodity marketing skills
• Learn financial and risk management
• Receive negotiations and sales training
• Create marketing plans
• Expand your leadership and management skills

You’ll put what you learn into action:

• Develop and present business plans
• Operate a farm through a simulation course
• Plan an event (Band in the Sand)
• Compete in an agribusiness case competition
• Host and run a major retail event