Certificate in Early Learning and Child Care

at Lakeland College - Vermilion Campus Canada

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.

You’ll develop essential skills such as:  

• Observing, reporting and assessing skills in case management situations  
• Building therapeutic relationships  
• Helping children and youth who have behavioural or learning difficulties  
• Supporting family interventions  
• Recognizing symptoms of abuse & addiction  
• Building resiliency  
• Working with children and youth in diverse setting

Lakeland's Bachelor of Agriculture Technology prepares you to take on the challenges of this rapidly evolving sector.

Integrating computer technologies and the Internet of Things has transformed agriculture. At Lakeland, you'll be immersed in those kinds of hands-on, real world experiences--experiences that bring together ag tech with production and business management. You'll use the latest in:

• Ag equipment and its tech
• Software
• Hardware
• Digital devices

 You'll learn:

• On our Student-Managed Farm–powered by New Holland
• In your lab, the new ag tech centre
• From your industry practicum

 Graduate with expertise and technical skills including:

• Precision data systems
• Machinery learning
• Artificial intelligence
• Robotics
• Bioengineering 

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

Spend a year putting theory into practice and earn a general agricultural certificate.

Focus on either crop or livestock production. Whatever your choice, you’ll learn common skills for modern agricultural operations:

• Computer training
• Keeping accurate business records
• Using up-to-date technology for precision farming

Half of your time will be on college farm putting theory into practice. Our Student-Managed Farm – powered by New Holland includes:

• Beef and dairy herds
• Range land
• Crop land
• Facilities such as the [Dairy Learning Centre] and Agricultural Technology Centre

On the crop side you’ll learn practical field skills such as how to

• Identify weed and plants
• Assess pest problems

On the livestock side, develop basic production skills for dairy, cow-calf, and sheep.

You’ll likely want to stay another year. Earn a [crop technology] diploma or choose one of our animal science technology diploma majors.

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.

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

Set your career in the dairy industry in motion with Lakeland’s new animal science technology major.

 Through our dairy science major you’ll learn specialized dairy management skills. You’ll study:

• Production
• Herd management
• Nutrition
• Farm management
• Sustainability

You’ll learn hands-on and through student-managed activities. Those activities range from practical herd management to implementing new technologies. Our Dairy Learning Centre will be central to many of your learning experiences. You’ll investigate current industry events and trends.
 
In your second year, you’ll be a member of the Student-Managed Farm (SMF) dairy unit. Or, you’ll do a student-led practicum. Whatever your choice, you’ll understand multiple aspects of how to manage a dairy farm. The range goes from herd health to supervising employees to business financials.
 
You’ll graduate armed with knowledge and tools to return to the farm or to make your mark in another area of the dairy 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.

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