Graduate Certificate in Paralegal

at Algonquin College - Ottawa Campus Canada

In the one-year Performing Arts Ontario College Certificate program, you enjoy the thrill of performing and are committed to pursuing your craft to industry standards. You learn how to advance your craft while developing live and digital performance skills.

Learn the artistry of the stage and how to shine in front of an audience. Through collaboration with other performers, create unique performance pieces and perform to audiences. Learn how to audition and prepare for live and digital performances in professional studio settings.

Enhance your performance ability in:

• Voice
• Movement
• Spoken word
• Comedy
• Theatre
• Film
• Music
• Entertainment

In professional studio settings, you acquire vocal, audition, stage presence, production and on-camera techniques. Through collaborative activities, you experience various forms of basic performance, including the development of stage presence and audience interaction. Learn the essentials of proper breathing and voice production, as well as movement workshops, along with exercises that cultivate physical self-awareness and enable you to make better creative and enduring choices in the performing arts.

Benefit from the college experience while developing confidence in your performance skills. We work with industry to make connections that can help you achieve your future goals. You can choose to prepare for an audition, pursue a career path or apply for further education in the arts.

This one-year Drawing Foundations for Animation and Illustration Ontario College Certificate helps you to develop the strong drawing skills that are necessary for your evolution as an artist, to further your education in various creative visual art programs.

Expand your potential, using a wide variety of digital and traditional mediums to build creative works, while discovering your strengths and preferences along the way. Immersed in a studio environment, you explore life drawing, sculpting, and character, environment and creature design. You also create appealing environments that encompass a sense of character and a lived-in feel using proper perspective, texture and detail. Sculpting and painting with digital tools and software solidifies your understanding of the properties of light, value and colour and their influence in a 3D environment.

You have the opportunity to research and explore your abilities and interests in:

• Animation
• Comic books
• Book illustration
• Concept art
• Graphic novels
• Gaming
• Anime

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. 
 

Discover a career supporting children, families and communities

The Bachelor of Early Learning and Community Development (Honours) program prepares you to work with children and families in both the community development and educational sectors and provides you with a variety of transferable skills.

There is an increasing awareness of the importance of early learning in our society. Similarly, there is an ongoing need to develop and support early learning opportunities for children and their families within a variety of settings. The early learning sector is evolving to address these changes. This program is ideal for those who want to play a role in these developments.

This program combines theory and practice, giving you the skills and knowledge you need for engaging with communities, families and children to create and implement community and school based programs that support early learning and development.

Throughout the program, you have three varied field placements within both community and school settings. These give you the chance to apply your skills to real-world settings. With field placements, applied learning and a semester-long work term, graduates are ready for employment in the community development and education sectors.

Graduates may find work in:

• Community health agencies
• Kindergartens
• Early learning programs
• Child and family centres
• Provincial government
• Non-governmental agencies addressing the needs of families and children

This one-year General Arts and Science - Introduction to Fine Art Ontario College Certificate program gives you hands-on training in an art studio setting. It introduces you to possible careers and education pathways in the arts and culture sector. Build a diverse set of basic technical skills while gaining practical experience with:

• Painting
• Drawing
• Printmaking
• Sculpting
• Digital media

You also learn essential business skills that are necessary when working as a professional artist. Additionally, you learn about trends and topics in art history, as well as contemporary art theory and practices.

You receive an Ontario College Certificate in General Arts and Science - One Year, with a concentration in Introduction to Fine Art. Using the portfolios you have created, you can apply to a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree program at the university level. You can also continue your education at Algonquin College programs such as:

• Gaphic Design
• Photography
• Applied Museum Studies
• Interior Decorating
• or in Year II of Algonquin College`s General Arts and Science Ontario College Diploma program.

Should you decide to enter the workforce, this certificate demonstrates to employers that you have the ability to learn at a post-secondary, you are committed to a career in the arts, and you possess critical thinking skills.

Learning Outcomes
The graduate has reliably demonstrated the ability to:

• Develop, through general knowledge gained in a wide range of subjects, insight into both self and society.
• Develop flexibility and clarity of both thought and expression in order to develop communications competence to a level required by business and industry.
• Understand and utilize critical thinking processes and problem-solving techniques.
• Examine and evaluate various aspects of our changing society to assist in developing a sense of personal and social responsibility as a citizen in society.
• Employ basic vocational skills drawn from the areas of the Humanities, Social and Behavioural Sciences or Vocational Studies (Business, Technology).

The two-year Early Childhood Education Ontario College Diploma program prepares you to become an educator of children in a variety of early learning settings. Gain the knowledge and skills necessary to work with families and other professionals to support children`s learning and development.

This program provides you with the ability to create, implement and assess play-based curricula while building stimulating child-centred environments. Benefit from both theoretical and hands-on learning opportunities. You have three field placements during the program that focus on children from birth to age 12. These real-world experiences allow you to integrate theory with professional practice in early learning programs.

You assist in providing guidance to children while planning, implementing and evaluating programs. Through your placements, you gain valuable hands-on skills and experience to help you understand the diverse roles, settings, and responsibilities of an Early Childhood Educator.

Learning Outcomes
The graduate has reliably demonstrated the ability to:

• Create learning contexts to enable, build and maintain caring, responsive relationships in partnerships with children, families and communities that value and respect social, cultural and linguistic diversity including Indigenous peoples’ worldviews and Francophone identity.
• Co-create, facilitate and reflect upon inquiry and play-based early years and child care programs and pedagogical approaches to support children’s learning, holistic development and well-being following children’s capabilities, interests, ideas and experiences.
• Co-design and maintain inclusive early learning environments to value and support equitable, accessible and meaningful learning opportunities for all children, their families and communities in a range of early years and child care settings.
• Collaborate with children, families, colleagues, agencies and community partners to create, maintain, evaluate and promote safe and healthy early learning environments to support independence, reasonable risk-taking and healthy development and well-being.
• Use observation strategies to identify children’s strengths and challenges and to ascertain when children and families might benefit from additional support or community resources.
• Use professional communication in interactions with children, families, colleagues, employers, the regulatory body, government authorities and children’s service agencies to meet legal and ethical standards of the early years sector.
• Act in accordance with relevant legislation, regulations, College of Early Childhood Educators Code of Ethics and Standards of Practice, agency policies and procedures and principles of evidence-informed practice and reflect upon their impact on one’s own role in early years and child care settings.
• Identify, report and document when a child is in a situation of perceived risk for, or actual neglect or abuse, in accordance with legislation, the College of Early Childhood Educators Code of Ethics and Standards of Practice, policies and procedures.
• Create and engage in partnerships with families, communities, colleagues, inter-disciplinary professionals, authorities and child service agencies to advocate for quality early years and child care programs and services.
• Engage in reflective practice and continuous professional learning in accordance with principles of lifelong learning, evidence-informed practices in the early years sector and requirements of the College of Early Childhood Educators.
• Identify and apply discipline-specific practices that contribute to the local and global community through social responsibility, economic commitment an environmental stewardship.

The Artificial Intelligence Software Development Ontario College Graduate Certificate program is designed to prepare you to meet the increasing market demand for artificial intelligence software development expertise. Through this program, you will enhance your existing software development skills to become an AI software developer, with an in-depth understanding of the major AI technologies and how to leverage AI to solve problems.

The program explores AI using a top-down and a bottom-up approach simultaneously. You begin a deep dive into the detailed mechanisms of machine learning to acquire the skills to troubleshoot, debug and optimize machine learning and deep learning architectures. You investigate various techniques of AI and survey which types of problems are best solved using each AI technique.

Through a combination of theory-based learning and industry-based applied research AI projects, graduates possess the theoretical knowledge and hands-on skills to assess, recommend, design, implement and troubleshoot various advanced AI solutions. Graduates enter the workforce with an in-depth understanding of deep learning, reinforcement learning and knowledge representation. Together these three branches form a comprehensive view of the AI landscape, giving the AI developer the knowledge and skills required to implement solutions such as speech recognition and natural language understanding, planning, diagnosis, smart agents, machine vision, intelligent manufacturing processes and intelligent control. Students have the option to gain real-world experience through two paid co-operative education (co-op) work terms.

The four-year Bachelor of Building Science (Honours) degree program is designed to give you a broad knowledge base related to building environments. It covers all facets of building design, construction, human comfort and sustainability. It is Canada`s only Bachelor of Building Science program.

The small class sizes of the program allow you and your peers to form tight-knit working groups and build effective communication skills necessary to succeed in the industry. You will send approximately one third of your time working in the labs, developing your skills. You also have the opportunity to gain industry experience from the site visits, professors who are actively working in the field, and two mandatory paid cooperative education (co-op) terms.

As a student in the program, you learn skills specific to architecture, construction methodologies, building enveloped, sustainability and other areas such as:

• Science and engineering principles, professionalism and methodologies
• Fundamentals of mathematics, technical writing, computer applications
• Building frames and structures, geotechnical engineering, and materials science
• Sustainable design, botany, renewable energy, urban planning and building information modeling
• Business fundamentals, project planning and management, research and leadership skills

Learning Outcomes
The graduate has reliably demonstrated the ability to:

• Integrate sustainable building practices and alternative energy solutions and present options that balance client specifications, site conditions, and human factors.
• Use sound, acceptable engineering principles for the solution and documentation of situations encountered during the construction or rehabilitation of buildings.
• Communicate effectively with all project stakeholders.
• Read, interpret, and, with direction, modify documents related to building plans, including working drawings that involve structural, electrical, and mechanical features.
• Formulate strategies for the efficient and effective commissioning and operation of buildings and building systems.
• Evaluate the practical applications of primary and secondary theoretical research related to existing and emerging construction methods and materials.
• Analyze, test, and comment on the functionality of alternative structural, mechanical, and electrical solutions proposed for integration in both new projects and renovations.
• Contribute to the on-going economic viability of construction and engineering projects through the application of principles of estimating, accounting, and cost controls.
• Facilitate partnerships and productive interactions within project teams that involve knowledge-workers and skilled trade workers.
• Ensure work, activities, and practice are in compliance with established ethical and professional standards, as well as local, provincial, and national legislation.
• Adapt to changes in employment requirements through the development, implementation, and updating of professional and personal development plans.
• Identify and apply discipline-specific practices that contribute to the local and global community through social responsibility, economic commitment and environmental stewardship.

If you have a recognized Advanced Diploma in Architectural Technology or Civil Engineering Technology, you may be eligible to enter the third year of study. If you have a recognized Diploma in Architectural Technician, Construction Engineering Technician, or an Advanced Diploma in Mechanical Engineering Technology you may be eligible to enter into the second year with advanced standing. See the Bachelor of Building Science (Honours) Entry into Level 5 and Bachelor of Building Science (Honours) Entry into Level 3 bridging programs for details.

The Environmental Management and Assessment Ontario College Graduate Certificate program adds depth to your existing expertise in the environmental management and assessment field. Highly skilled and environmentally aware professionals are constantly being sought out by employers in the field. This program enhances your knowledge of environmental sciences.

Gain essential knowledge and skills by studying a range of disciplines throughout this program, including:

• Ecological conservation
• Project management
• Environmental policy and reporting
• Contaminant control
• GIS and environmental map design

Take courses in hydrology, environmental modelling and environmental policies. Courses are offered on evenings and weekends.

Field experiences throughout the program give you integrative skills that employers of this expanding field are looking for.

Students also have the option to gain real-world experience through a paid co-operative education (co-op) work term. Please note that places in the co-op version of the program are subject to availability.

Graduates of this program may be employed in a number of fields including:

• Ecology research and reporting
• Water and wastewater monitoring
• Site assessments
• Cost proposals
• Pollution prevention and control
• Regulatory compliance
• Policy development

The two-year Occupational Therapist Assistant and Physiotherapist Assistant Ontario College Diploma program gives you the knowledge and skills to work under an Occupational Therapist and/or Physiotherapist. Occupational Therapist Assistants and Physiotherapist Assistants play a vital supporting role in the assessment, planning and implementation of therapeutic care for patients with the goal of achieving functional independence and occupational performance. They help teach clients to cope with limits in movement, daily functioning and activities.

Through classroom theory, lab techniques, group work and practical experience, you prepare to work with patients coping with health limitations. During various clinical placements, you apply theory and knowledge while further developing your skills. With more than 600 hours of clinical placements during the program, you increase your understanding of the field and gain confidence assisting professional therapists in various healthcare facilities.

Upon graduating, you may find work in:

• Hospitals
• Health centres
• Community organizations
• Rehabilitation facilities
• Private clinics, and
• Long-term care