There are more than just school aged kids heading back to school in the coming weeks. Many adults in the Central Plains will also be seeking to further their education, through programs such as the mature learning program at Portage Collegiate.

Bob Kriski, vice-principal at Portage Collegiate, said registration is continuing to pick up as the beginning of school approaches.

“Our numbers are the in 30s right now, which is still early in the registration for the mature student programming. It sounds like there still certainly is the same kind of interest out there. People are inquiring and I’m just getting back to many of them this morning,” said Kriski on Friday.

Although most of the mature learning students will be starting on Sept. 17 some seeking specific courses will be starting on Sept. 6 with the rest of the student body.

“The only mature students that will start on Sept. 6 are the ones who are taking courses that we can’t offer within our adult model. If someone calls me and says they want to do hairstyling, we don’t have a mature student program for hairstyling, so we say to them if you want to take the program you have to go in with our regular students,” said Kriski. “We will have a handful of students doing that, probably from seven to ten will start at that time.”

In order to take part in the mature learning program students need to be at least 19 years of age, have been out of school for at least four months, and have some high school credits.

“If they come in and they have no high school credits we usually refer them to the Portage Learning and Literacy Centre because often they might need extra supports. We don’t have funding for those supports,” said Kriski.

Those that have some high school credits will need to meet a reduce number of credits from the rest of the students at PCI.

“Instead of needing 30 credits like the regular students need, you only need eight. Four of them have to be at the grade 12 level; of those four at the grade 12 level one has to be math and one has to be English,” said Kriski.

There are three teachers each semester who work with the adult learning program. They offer a flexible schedule and some self-directed classes in subjects such as math, English, and a couple of other credits.

“For 80 per cent of our students they could come in and finish their requirements in one semester. A lot of them choose not to as they also have other commitments. Because of that some of them like to spread it out over a year. That’s the most common choice,” said Kriski.

Of those students in the mature learning program 20 per cent will graduate within a year, 50 per cent will stretch it out longer than one year, and the remaining 30 per cent will either drop the program or transfer to another program.

Applications must be made by the end of September. After that time registrations will no longer be accepted in the mature student program. Call 857-6843 for more information.