By Shaun Penner

GPRC getting second BBA option through SAIT

Feb 15, 2019 | 12:39 PM

Bachelor of Business Administration students at GPRC will soon have a second option when it comes to getting their degree.

Starting in the fall of 2019, the college will be extending its relationship with the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology in offering a BBA with a major in Management.

SAIT and GPRC have an existing relationship dating back to 2017, in partnering to offer a BBA with a focus on accounting.

“Our students and business leaders across northwestern Alberta have told GPRC that they want and need business degree options in the region,” says the Chair of the Business and Office Administration Department Charles Backman. “They need students with these degrees in order to fill the emerging need that exists up here in Grande Prairie. The region is growing and needs people that are going to stay in the region and grow with it.”

He notes that this program will also help fill the need for face-to-face learning options for students in the Peace region. The college was originally partnered with Athabasca University prior to 2017, but that relationship ended as a result of Athabasca turning its attention to distance, or online learning. It was soon after that GPRC and SAIT developed their working partnership.

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With the new option in Management, many businesses and organizations will now have local people to fill jobs in the Grande Prairie area.

“It could be a business manager or consultant,” states Backman. “Production managers, if you worked in a mill. This even gives people the skills to start and operate their own small business.”

The first cohort of BBA students in the Accounting major are set to graduate this spring. Backman says he is looking forward to seeing more and more students receive their four-year degrees right here in Grande Prairie in the future. He also says that the college is always looking to find more degree programs to operate out of GPRC, to help meet local industry demand.

“This relationship with SAIT has blossomed and grown and it’s a credit to the students we have and the faculty that we have in the business program,” states Backman. “It’s a credit to the efforts of both the Deans and the people in the executive suite to help us all support and grow in the same direction.”

The date for GPRC’s 2019 convocation at its Grande Prairie campus is May 4.