Diploma in Building Construction Technician

at Algonquin College - Ottawa Campus Canada

The two-year Interior Decorating Ontario College Diploma program develops your creativity and artistic flair in residential and commercial interiors. Recognized by the Decorators & Designers Association of Canada (DDA), this program prepares you with the essential design and client relations skills needed to succeed as an Interior Decorator.

Develop your creativity through hands-on projects using modern digital techniques as well as traditional skills. Create appealing atmospheres, discover current trends, choose effective colour palettes, understand complex kitchen and bath design, and manipulate elements such as furnishings, finishes and lighting. Work with individuals and/or businesses to improve residential and commercial spaces to enhance the users` experience.

The program provides an opportunity for you expand your real-world experience through competition and real community projects. Moreover, you are able to gain valuable industry experience and contacts as well as apply your skills during your 42-hour field/work placement during your final semester.

There are many career opportunities in the industry after graduation. Graduates may find employment as a:

• Residential or commercial decorator
• Kitchen and bath designer
• Set decorator
• Staging and colour consultant
• Exhibit designer
• Sales/product representative
• Window display and merchandising consultant for retail spaces or photo shoots

The two-year Heating, Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Technician Ontario College Diploma program, delivered in a compressed format over 42 weeks, is approved by the Technical Standards and Safety Authority (TSSA) and is taught in Algonquin`s state-of-the-art Algonquin Centre for Construction Excellence (ACCE) building. By studying in the ACCE building, you have the opportunity to work in a fully-outfitted facility where you learn both traditional and advanced technologies used in the industry.

Start the program by learning electrical and heating essentials – all courses have a strong hands-on component. To better prepare you for a career in the industry, vocational subjects are enriched with courses in:

• Communications
• Mathematics
• Related sciences
• Computer applications

Continue to enhance your knowledge and skills throughout the remainder of the program, and learn about controls, forced air gas/oil heating systems, hydronics and refrigeration concepts.

Algonquin College`s program also includes an approved curriculum for:

• Gas Technician 3 (G3) and 2 (G2)
• Oil Burner Technician 3 (OBT3) and 2 (OBT2).

This means that you have an opportunity to prepare for and write your TSSA exams, in order to become licensed as a Gas Technician and Oil Burner Technician during the program. At the end of your second term, you may be eligible to apply to write your G3 and OBT3 certificates of qualification. At the end of your final term, you may be eligible to apply for your G2 and OBT2 certificates of qualification, making you more employable in the field.

Learning Outcomes
The graduate has reliably demonstrated the ability to:

• Relate effectively to heating, refrigeration, and air conditioning supervisors, coworkers, and customers.
• Work safely and in accordance with all applicable acts, regulations, legislation, and codes to ensure personal and public safety.
• Select and use a variety of heating, refrigeration, and air conditioning tools and equipment safely and properly.
• Solve math and applied science problems required to effectively install and maintain heating, refrigeration, and air conditioning systems, and associated components.
• Prepare and interpret electrical, mechanical, and piping drawings.
• Install, service, and troubleshoot heating, refrigeration, air conditioning systems, and associated components.
• Develop strategies for ongoing personal and professional development, that will lead to enhanced work performance and career opportunities, and keep pace with industry changes.
• Identify and apply discipline specific practices that contribute to the local and global community through social responsibility, economic commitment and environmental stewardship.

In the two-year Horticultural Industries Ontario College Diploma program you learn how to create landscapes from design to implementation. By offering a condensed format over 16 months, the Horticultural Industries program allows you to fast track your career.

Learn the key aspects of this dynamic industry, including:

• Urban and rural landscape design, installation and maintenance
• Nursery production and management
• Sustainable urban agriculture
• Green roof and living wall technology

The program offers a hands-on learning experience during the industry`s prime production period in the spring/summer/fall. Practice skills in Algonquin College`s extensive campus gardens surrounding the Horticulture Centre and within the attached greenhouse complex.

The various plant collections and the vegetable garden provide you with the perfect opportunity to study plant identification, plant selection and ideal growing conditions. You take active part in further developing and maintaining the grounds in smaller work-groups, simulating the industry.

To further your skills and make connections in the industry, you complete a 12-week co-op placement as part of the program. The landscape industry is fast-paced and constantly evolving, with a high-demand for skilled horticultural specialists and landscape designers.

Graduates may find work, either as employees or self-employed, in:

• Construction and maintenance firms
• Landscape design
• Nurseries and garden centres
• Urban food production
• Tree care industry
• Park systems
• Consulting or teaching

The one-year Brand Management Ontario College Graduate Certificate program allows you to explore the many facets of brand strategy and management. Leading industry experts share their insights to teach you about the tools and strategies to be more business and brand savvy. Learn to navigate the global, digital and socially-conscious marketplace so that you can build and maintain a company`s most valuable asset - brand equity.

Analyze and plan how a brand will be perceived in the marketplace. Identify the right combination of brand attributes to reflect and deliver on the experience that the consumer has come to expect from the brand. Learn how to use and measure social media brand channels while building brand equity through the management of strategic promotional campaigns. Measure the success of a campaign using brand metrics and tracking tools.

The program has a strong focus on leadership and strategic thinking skills. It considers how to manage a brand in this world`s emerging economies and how to build a socially responsible brand. It also uses a variety of learning opportunities to expand your knowledge, including case studies, classroom and online study, group work and practical industry-related experience.

Employment opportunities in brand management continue to grow both nationally and internationally. Graduates may find employment in the private, public and non-profit sectors in the industry. Specific areas include:

• Advertising
• Retail
• Services
• Information technology
• Telecommunications
• Manufacturing

You may find positions such as:

• Assistant brand manager
• Brand manager
• Brand strategist
• Brand marketing manager
• Key account manager

Applying your creativity to shape a career communicating ideas and concepts

The three-year Graphic Design Ontario College Advanced Diploma program helps you apply your creativity to communicating ideas and concepts in both print and interactive media.

Using a combination of theoretical and hands-on learning, you gain skills in design, typography, image, colour, coding, motion graphics, interaction and production from industry-connected faculty. You learn to be a problem-solver who can manage and execute visual design projects.

Whether learning design for the page or for the screen, you study industry-endorsed concepts and techniques. You also become an expert at communicating ideas to a client through:

• Sketches
• Prototypes
• Storyboards
• Interactive mock-ups 

There is a strong focus on hands-on training, using industry-standard software tools, which will ensure you are career-ready upon graduation. Field trips and actual client projects are offered to bring the workplace into the classroom.

From your second year on, you become a student-member of the Registered Graphic Designers of Ontario. In your final semester, you embark on a six-week fieldwork placement that transitions you to industry. You work side-by-side with experienced professionals and gain networking contacts.

Upon graduation, you will have developed a design portfolio that showcases your creativity and problem-solving skills. You will display your work at the annual Grad Show exhibition.

Graduates may find employment in a(n):

• Graphic design studio
• Advertising agency
• Motion graphics design
• Interactive/web design studio

Graduates may also find work as an in-house designer for an organization or government, in the television, entertainment or game-development industry, or in freelance opportunities. 
 

The language skills you need for the life you want

The General Arts and Science - English for Academic Purposes (EAP) Ontario College Certificate program is an academically-oriented English as a Second Language (ESL) Program designed for International and Domestic students whose first language is not English.

Improve your academic English language skills for college and job success in a dynamic multicultural setting. Upon successful completion of the program, you obtain an Ontario College Certificate, which provides a pathway into post-secondary studies by satisfying the language requirements for entry into most programs offered at Algonquin College.

The EAP Placement Test determines your starting point in the program, ranging from low-intermediate to low-advanced language skills. As you move through the program, you actively participate in a variety of large and small group activities that provide engaging opportunities to practice the four language skills of:

• Reading
• Writing
• Listening
• Speaking

Earn a flexible diploma that shows you are aware of all areas of business, and that you also have specialized education in accounting.

Accounting is one of seven majors available to Business Administration students. This three-year Ontario College Advanced Diploma program starts with three semesters, learning a variety of essential business skills, before ultimately deciding on a major.

The program prepares you for a challenging and rewarding career in the accounting industry. Accounting is often referred to as the backbone of business - businesses need skilled accountants to monitor financial accounts in order to operate effectively and efficiently.

This program enables you to provide businesses with the complete and accurate financial picture they need to thrive.

Study all major areas of accounting including:

• Financial accounting
• Managerial accounting
• Taxation
• Financial management

Practise recording financial transactions, preparing/presenting financial statements, reports and other documents, and using current accounting software.

You may find employment in both the public and private sectors in roles such as:

• Accounting assistant
• Accounting associate
• Accounting clerk
• Junior financial analyst
• Junior staff accountant 

There are opportunities in a variety of work environments, including:

• Accounting firms
• Small and medium-sized businesses
• Service organizations
• Government departments
• Financial institutions 

Build your architectural career within the construction industry

The two-year Architectural Technician Ontario College Diploma program teaches you the skills and techniques to enter a career in the architecture and construction fields.

Your professors are industry professionals who provide you with a learning experience from the construction industry and the architectural profession, enabling you to be successful in your academic and professional ventures.

Begin the program with a focus on residential construction, and progress to studying commercial construction, as defined in the Ontario Building Code. Develop skills related to all facets of building construction, including design and technical resolution with the integration of building and material detailing.

As a student in this program, you have the opportunity to study and learn in a variety of practical topics, using both applied and theoretical learning, and a project-based, integrated studies approach. Courses include:

• Working Drawings
• Methods and Materials of Construction
• Codes and Standards
• AutoCAD
• Revit
• Visual Communications
• Design
• Environmental Systems

The two-year Journalism Ontario College Diploma program prepares you to report on all news delivery platforms, and helps you develop the online skills that have become vital in the industry.
Acquire leading-edge, relevant knowledge and skills in multi-platform and traditional journalism. Gain hands-on experience and expand your portfolio almost immediately upon starting the program, working for the award-winning Algonquin Times - named Canada`s top campus newspaper in 2015 and 2017 - as well as Glue, Ottawa`s student magazine.

Learn the core journalism skills to succeed in the industry. Study how to write factually, conduct interviews and filter information. Examine aspects of photo journalism, page layout, web and e-publishing, and online reporting/editing.
Your learning is expanded with workshops, guest speakers and field trips, offering exposure to a diversity of information and skills necessary for the modern journalist. To ensure you are comfortable with all journalistic platforms, you create photo and video journalism and produce newscasts for CKDJ 107.9 FM, Algonquin College`s radio station.

Expand your real-world experience with a six-week internship at a media outlet and learn to operate as a freelance journalist. You have the choice to work at a local company or agency, or complete the placement out of the region or country.

After you graduate, if you wish to further your education, you can apply to the University of Ottawa`s Honours Bachelor Degree in Digital Journalism program, in which you may be eligible for advanced standing.

Learning Outcomes
The graduate has reliably demonstrated the ability to:

• Report on stories in an accurate, detailed, balanced, professional and timely manner.
• Apply computer and technical skills to designated production and research functions in journalism.
• Function both independently and as a member of editorial and/or production teams.
• Analyze knowledge from communities, current events and public affairs, and history to interpret and express the context for designated journalism publications and/or productions.
• Develop strategies for personal and professional development.
• Comply with relevant Canadian legislation, standards and the principles and practices of journalism.
• Write and edit content for the designated media platforms.
• Publish and/or broadcast content for the designated media platforms.
• Apply production skills and use production equipment in the preparation and distribution of content for the designated media platforms.
• Identify and apply discipline-specific practices that contribute to the local and global community through social responsibility, economic commitment and environmental stewardship.

The three-year Business Administration (Core) Ontario College Advanced Diploma program provides you with essential skills and knowledge for a career in business. This program is the perfect option if you are interested in pursuing a career in business, but are unsure which specialization best fits your interests.

This program has been designed to allow you to explore a variety of business fields before ultimately deciding on a major. In the third semester, take one course from each major to help you understand the various career specializations. During this time, you have the opportunity to meet with upper-level students and program coordinators for guidance. Then you make a selection that is most aligned to your interests.

Your final three semesters match the career or field you`re interested in pursuing. Choose to major in Accounting, Finance, Human Resources, International Business, Marketing, or Supply Chain and Operations Management. With all majors, you have the opportunity to network and learn directly from business professionals. Our active Program Advisory Committee ensures that the program continuously evolves to meet the ever-changing demands of today`s organizations.