Keyano College is a comprehensive community institution located in the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo, one of Canada’s fastest growing urban areas. The college has stewardship responsibility for the northeast region of Alberta which requires that it provide access to a range of post-secondary programs and services for the population located in its service area. Over the course of history, Keyano College has proactively positioned itself as a community builder along with its industry and community partners and accordingly, has facilitated both the achievement of rural development objectives by educating and training the human resource capital required for industry expansion while also serving as the primary acculturating institution within the region.

The evolution of Keyano as a comprehensive institution has largely reflected industry’s progress in developing our nation’s richest natural resource, the Athabasca oil sands. Initially established as the Alberta Vocational Centre in 1966, the college’s programs and service offerings have become more diversified in accordance with the demands and interests of its expanding population and multicultural orientation. Notwithstanding, the economic driver of the region and province continues to be the oil sands development. These projects, which will represent more than two thirds of Canada’s oil production by 2015, are estimated to require an additional 12,000 employees to develop, operate and maintain the oil producing infrastructure. The projected growth in oil sands development along with the significant accompanying increases in municipal, healthcare, education, retail and community services is expected to result in a doubling of the existing population over the next 10 years, which in turn, requires a continual and progressive repositioning of Keyano’s existing program mix in service of ever-changing regional priorities.

In addition to consultations with industry and in order to ascertain the “fit” of the college’s existing program mix with regional needs and priorities, an all-staff consultation with faculty, staff and board members representing the community was held on May 25 and 26, 2011. The two day session was organized assuming that provincial government funding would not be increased to accommodate the significant increase in demand for both industry and community-based programming in the northeast region for the next three years. The purpose of the consultation was to identify opportunities to increase the effectiveness of our programs and services as well as to identify and realize efficiencies.
 

The Keyano College Comprehensive Institutional Plan is reflective of consultations undertaken with members of our community, advisory committees, stakeholders, students, staff, faculty and members of our Board of Governors.