With its emphasis on small class sizes and outdoor learning, the Whistler Adventure School (WAS) was perhaps better suited to accommodate a sudden, global pandemic than your average school.
“Honestly, we haven’t had to change much because the main features of our school were always small classes and hands-on, outdoor learning skills, where you’re getting outside and actually practising the skills,” explained Shelly Quinn, the school’s sales director.
In different ways, another of the resort’s post-secondary institutions, the Whistler Learning Centre (WLC), was also positioned well to adapt to physical distancing protocols, thanks to the partnerships it had already forged in the community and beyond, as well as the flexibility that comes without having its own dedicated campus.
Previously running courses out of Whistler’s Tamwood International College, the WLC will move its in-person learning this fall to larger rooms in the Whistler Conference Centre, a move that effectively kills two birds with one stone by accommodating physical distancing and filling the Tourism Whistler-operated facility during a period when large event and conference business has ground to a halt.
“Those rooms are sitting empty, so when we were trying to look at what are the problems and the solutions, a facility like that jumped out as a great place to hold in-person classes because the rooms are big enough to allow for those physical distancing protocols and we could actually offer in-person classes,” said Suki Cheyne, WLC’s executive director.
That’s not to say both schools haven’t had to make major adjustments on the fly. Both the WLC and WAS were, of course, forced to close their doors at the onset of the pandemic, and both will have smaller class sizes in place when students begin in the fall.
Administrators at the WLC, which offers accredited courses in partnership with the BC Institute of Technology (BCIT), had to rejig some of its fall course offerings.
“We’ve changed some of the courses so that they’re not so technical in that aspect, and we’ve chosen courses that lend themselves to a more condensed delivery model,” explained Cheyne. “Also, now we’re thinking about people from the Lower Mainland as well and what courses they need and what will the greater population need in order to continue their post-secondary education.”
Each three-credit WLC course will be offered as a small cohort daily from Monday to Wednesday, 8:30 a.m to 4 p.m., over two weeks. Courses in project management, marketing, photography, journalism and organizational behaviour will be offered at various times in the fall and winter.
Visit whistlerlearningcentre.com/course/fall-2020-bcit-whistler for the full course list and registration details.
The WAS, meanwhile, has not had to alter its fall programming due to COVID-19, although it is offering a new course in Sustainable Trail Building led by local mountain-biking icon and WORCA trail builder Dan Raymond. That’s in addition to its existing accredited courses in Whistler-centric fields, such as adventure tourism, mountain sport technician, alpine guide, rock guide, bike guide, and ski and snowboard guide training.
While interest levels haven’t quite gotten back to pre-COVID levels, Quinn said the Function Junction school is seeing steady demand from prospective students who are considering the next step in their education closer to home.
“Kind of like the town of Whistler has seen, what we’re getting is a lot more interest from people in B.C., which is great, because we’re getting known in our own local market and locals are realizing they can pursue training and education here in Whistler as well,” she said.
Learn more at whistleradventureschool.com.
A representative for Tamwood declined comment for this story as the language school’s programming is still being finalized for the fall.
