Certificate in Geographic Information Systems

at University of the Fraser Valley - Abbotsford Campus Canada

To prepare you for today's multi-disciplinary creative industry, UFV's Graphic and Digital Design diploma program (GDD) provides you with a solid foundation in four fields of professional practice:  brand identity, graphic/communication design, dynamic media, and interactive design.

As a student, you are immersed in design practice through project-based learning in collaborative Mac studio spaces. You’ll build a strong foundation in design process, resourcefulness, and conceptual development, as well as skills in critical thinking, typography, image making, content creation, and industry standard Adobe software.

The Graphic and Digital Design diploma (GDD) is a full-time 60-credit cohort program offered on the Mission campus (fall intake), and the Abbotsford campus (winter intake).

As a GDD diploma student, you’ll be part of a cohort that moves together through the entire two-year program. You must register for five courses in each semester and each individual graphic design course is only offered once per academic year on each campus. Courses in the GDD diploma are raught by dynamic faculty engaged in design practice, professional communities, and academic research.

Expect at least four hours of homework each week for each course. GDD is both demanding and rewarding, requiring that you put in the time and commitment to build a strong professional practice portfolio.

FEATURES:

• Field trips enhance classroom learning
• Engage with the design industry through special events, guest lectures, study tours, design conferences, workshops, practicums, and mentorship opportunities.
• Coursework emphasizes professional standards of practice through real-world projects, special events, and workshops.
• Program eligible for financial aid

Develop your skills as an adult educator through UFV’s Bachelor of Arts in Adult Education — a mid-career professional development program.
Tailor your studies to fit your busy schedule. All courses are online with the exception of a few classroom sessions, with video conference access if you are a distance student. The Bachelor of Arts in Adult Education program is completely flexible and allows you to:

• Study part-time or full time
• Choose online courses on a rotating schedule
• Take evening and Saturday classes
• Earn credit for prior learning, including from non-traditional settings

The Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) in Graphic and Digital Design is a dynamic, hands-on future-focused professional education to help you launch a career as an artist or creative lead in British Columbia's creative economy.

As a BFA student in the major, minor, or extended minor in Graphic and Digital Design, you are immersed in experiential and applied learning that equips you with the skills needed to engage your creativity, visual savvy, critical thinking, and design skills in fields such as business, marketing, social enterprise, education, government, and more. While actively engaged in design practice and professional communities, you get to make connections through special events, guest lecturers, field trips, study tours, workshops, and industry mentors. We create opportunities for meaningful work, cultural enrichment, and the greater good.

BFA with major in Graphic and Digital Design
The Graphic and Digital Design major is a purpose-driven design degree focused on being flexible and responsive to an increasingly complex world. Begin your degree with core skills in communication design, brand identity, interactive design and dynamic media. Then move into years three and four with design as a frame of reference from which to choose your work experience (practicum or co-op) and electives to meet your goals and interests. Create impactful branded experiences with industry partners and community, and gain creative leadership abilities in digital project management, UX design, and design thinking. Your learning will position you as a designer who is a critical thinker, collaborator, and an agent of change.

As part of the program, you build a portfolio that reflects your passion, leadership and creative savvy gained through real-world projects, in-depth learning, and cross-disciplinary collaboration.

Choose your path to become a creative professional working across the entire scope of graphic design, or specialize within a context or field of practice to create meaningful work. The emphasis is on relevance, adaptability, and resilience.

The University Foundation certificate program is an intensive, full-time academic preparation program specifically designed for students who do not meet the English language requirements for full-time academic study at UFV.

The University Foundation certificate program (UFP) is an intensive program designed to help students make the transition from English Language Studies (ELS) to full-time university-level programs. Students take core ELS courses and university-level academic courses at the same time. When you successfully complete the University Foundation certificate, you meet the English requirement for full-time academic study at UFV. The University Foundation certificate program has two levels. Students are expected to maintain a 2.33 grade point average and complete the required ELS core courses at each level with a C+ or higher in ELS EAP084.

The number of university-level courses you can choose is based on your UFP level and grade point average (GPA).

UFV ten- to eighteen-month* Data Analysis post-baccalaureate program equips you with the practical skills needed to extract reliable information from large data sets.

By taking carefully designed courses with the right mix of computing and statistics, you gain the database skills you need to house, extract, manipulate and maintain data.

More importantly, you also learn the statistical techniques needed to collect data correctly, assess its quality, analyze it, and turn it into the business intelligence that companies and institutions highly value in the marketplace.  Beyond knowing how to use specific programming languages and tools, employers need you to identify meaningful patterns, so that you can draw actionable conclusions to guide decision-making.

Gain a deeper understanding of yourself and other people by earning a Bachelor of Arts with a major, minor, or honours in Psychology.

As the scientific study of the mind, behaviours, and motivations of people, psychology is concerned with almost every aspect of our lives. In fact, this field of study has assumed an increasingly important role in understanding and addressing social and individual problems.

Psychology has developed as both a profession and a science. Its findings have applications not only in the field of clinical psychology and counselling, but also in related fields such as human resources, marketing, management, social services, and more.

Psychology major
In your first and second year, you are introduced to some of the major research areas within the field of psychology including: motivation, psychological disorders, neuropsychology, etc. You learn about research methods used in psychology and apply them yourself when you conduct your own psychological research study.

In your third and fourth year, you begin to specialize by selecting courses that inspire you such as:

• Perception
• Learning
• Music
• Memory
• Consciousness
• Health
• Child and adolescent psychology
• Language
• Neuropsychology
• Drugs and Behaviour
• and more

UFV’s four-year Bachelor of Environmental Studies (BES) is a full-time program that provides you with the skills to shape business, industry, and government practices using economically and environmentally-sound principles. Developed as an integrated and interdisciplinary program, the BES builds connections between fields such as environmental studies, art, natural sciences, and communications. The program also incorporates a regional focus by addressing the environmental needs of the Fraser Valley, including agriculture and food security, climate change, land use planning/GIS, and environmental communications.

The Bachelor of Environmental Studies is structured around a primary core of courses that engage you on questions related to human-environment relationships, resource scarcity and allocation, innovation and problem solving, environmental research, and communication of ideas and results. Courses are delivered in a face-to-face format using lecture, seminar, field-based, and technology-supported classroom experiences. In addition, you may choose from a practicum or cooperative work placement to satisfy one of the work requirements. If you decide to combine the four-year BES with the Cooperative Education option, you need to allow for three additional semesters for degree completion.

Upon graduation, you are prepared to work as an environmental professional in Canada or abroad. Alternatively, you may also choose to pursue graduate studies or another professional designation.If you plan on working in the environmental science field and seek additional professional accreditation after graduation, you may consider the Bachelor of Environmental Studies (Natural Sciences) — planned for Winter 2020.

In virtually every sector of the economy, businesses of all sizes rely on information technology (IT) professionals to remain competitive. In fact, according to a recent BC Stats Report, average weekly earnings for technology employees are 85% higher than for non-tech workers in British Columbia and the unemployment rate has reached an all-time low.

UFV's intensive, two-year Computer Information Systems (CIS) diploma provides you with the knowledge and experience you need to find employment in the IT sector and prepares you to support single and networked systems to meet the requirements placed by ongoing business demands.

Throughout your studies, you explore key topics such as network and database administration, web design, network security, information systems management, and programming, which allows you to take your career in a number of different directions.

The Computer Information Systems diploma program combines courses from the computing, business, and communications fields to ensure you have the practical skills needed to obtain a first job, as well as a broad base from which to expand your training.

The four-semester program provides theoretical groundwork and specific skill development courses, with major emphasis on practical, hands-on work in UFV's modern well-equipped computer labs.

FEATURES:

• Co-op semester(s) provide paid work experience in your field of study Program eligible for financial aid

UFV offers the first year of the Bachelor of Applied Science (Engineering) degree program for students wishing to transfer to the University of British Columbia or the University of Victoria. Upon completion of the UFV program, students may be allowed to enter the second-year Engineering programs at UBC and UVic without any additional qualifying courses, providing they meet the entrance requirements for the program at these institutions.

Students transferring to UBC or UVic from the UFV program with the minimum required GPA may be admitted to the UBC/UVic second-year program. Once admitted, all students, regardless of their first-year institution, then compete for seats in different specialties based on their GPA; popular specialties have higher GPA requirements than the entrance GPA. UBC also allows admission from General Sciences, but may require a higher entrance GPA.

The Associate of Arts, Media and Communication Studies option, focuses on the study of information - how it is created, packaged, distributed, and used.

You will learn about different media industries, including social networks, and how they are changing. You will learn how advertising and other commercial images affect you, how Canadians fit into the global village and what it means to be literate in the new media; in short, you will learn how your life and society are changing in response to innovations in communication.

Students seeking careers in the technical areas of media production will find these courses very valuable, but will need courses from elsewhere to provide instruction in the mechanics of production. For example, while the music industry is studied, sound recording is not.

Graduates of the Associate of Arts, Media and Communication Studies option are prepared to seek employment, to transfer to one of the many degree programs in Canada, or to ladder into the Bachelor of Arts (MACS minor or extended minor) at UFV. Graduates are also eligible to apply to enter into the third year of the Bachelor of Arts in Professional Communication at Royal Roads University.