Miss-Delectable
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Deaf community welcomes new program
Lakeland College in Sherwood Park will become the home of Alberta's only sign-language-interpreter training program, but the provincial government does not have the money to fund it for the upcoming school year.
The program, a two-year diploma, was approved last month, much to the delight of the deaf community in Alberta. Officials at the college and in the deaf community will make implementation a high priority and hope to have it running by the 2007-08 school year by examining different funding strategies.
"Ever since the interpreter training program was terminated at Grant MacEwan in 2003, we have experienced a dire need for a supply of interpreters due to the higher demand by both hearing and deaf consumers," Linda Cundy, secretary of the Alberta Association of the Deaf, said in an e-mail.
Lakeland College currently offers a part-time sign language and deaf studies certificate, which will become a prerequisite for the interpreter training.
Robert Rock, a manager of public institutions in the ministry of advanced education, said all funding for new programs for the 2006-07 year has been allocated, but this program at Lakeland is a "priority from a provincial perspective" for the future.
Currently, there are only four interpreter-training programs in Canada: Douglas College in Vancouver, University of Manitoba, George Brown College in Toronto and Nova Scotia Community College in Halifax.
Lakeland College in Sherwood Park will become the home of Alberta's only sign-language-interpreter training program, but the provincial government does not have the money to fund it for the upcoming school year.
The program, a two-year diploma, was approved last month, much to the delight of the deaf community in Alberta. Officials at the college and in the deaf community will make implementation a high priority and hope to have it running by the 2007-08 school year by examining different funding strategies.
"Ever since the interpreter training program was terminated at Grant MacEwan in 2003, we have experienced a dire need for a supply of interpreters due to the higher demand by both hearing and deaf consumers," Linda Cundy, secretary of the Alberta Association of the Deaf, said in an e-mail.
Lakeland College currently offers a part-time sign language and deaf studies certificate, which will become a prerequisite for the interpreter training.
Robert Rock, a manager of public institutions in the ministry of advanced education, said all funding for new programs for the 2006-07 year has been allocated, but this program at Lakeland is a "priority from a provincial perspective" for the future.
Currently, there are only four interpreter-training programs in Canada: Douglas College in Vancouver, University of Manitoba, George Brown College in Toronto and Nova Scotia Community College in Halifax.