The Sir Wilfrid Laurier School Board has three distinctly unique territories in its school board- Laval, the Laurentians and the Lanaudiere. Our challenge is to offer quality services to each of our regions within the constraints of great distances and dispersion of our clientele. In our northern regions in particular, there is a lack of transportation infrastructure that makes it difficult for our potential clientele to access the services that we offer.

The Sir Wilfrid Laurier School Board has programs for adults in our Competency Development Center in Lachute, which supports adult learners to obtain credits toward a secondary school leaving certificate, as well as the opportunity to take interest courses such as photography, art and physical education. We also offer a Vocational training course in Industrial Construction and Maintenance Mechanics with our partnership with the Commission scolaire de la Rivière-du- Nord, in Laurentian Regional High School.

The introduction of our Carpentry program in St-Eustache two years ago has been a tremendous success. We have recently graduated our fifth group of students. This is a great success for our school board and a wonderful program for our students who, upon graduation, often find jobs immediately in their field of study.

Our adult education program in Joliette High School has also given our clientele the opportunity to get the credits they needed to obtain secondary school diplomas, experience success, build self-confidence and gain employment.

Our challenge as a school board however, is to offer quality services and opportunities to our communities across a large territory with a lack of transportation infrastructure. As Winston Churchill so famously said, “an optimist sees an opportunity in every challenge”. What this means for Sir Wilfrid Laurier School Board is that Adult Education and Vocational Training Department needs to find different and unique means to bring our courses to our clientele, since our clientele cannot always come to us!

How do we do this? The answer is on-line learning and satellite locations for off-site learning opportunities. The Sir Wilfrid Laurier School Board will be offering its first on- line Vocational Training Course in Hotel Reception in the Laurentians in the spring of 2014. Students will be able to go on-line and take their course in real time with a qualified teacher, broadcasting from our Laval location, without leaving the comfort of their homes.

In addition, the Sir Wilfrid Laurier School Board will be opening a Community Learning Center in collaboration with Vanier College in St-Faustin, Lac Carré in the spring of 2014. This community-learning center will serve as a community-meeting place and offer on-line courses using video-conferencing. Additionally, in-person courses for interest and for credit will be offered. Learning for earning and learning for life will be a reality in the Laurentians in this unique and beautiful setting. Our community-learning center in Joliette will also be part of this new initiative, in order to bring more opportunities to our clientele.

Lease watch for more announcements about our courses and our Community Connections events in coming issues of this magazine.