CALP Partnership Toolkit
Welcome to the CALP Partnership Toolkit, where you will find information on how to best support your students in accessing the online Adult Basic Education (ABE) program at NLC. This program is free for eligible students, and provides them with a new laptop as part of their course fees. The laptop enables students to access their live online courses, digital textbooks, and is an important tool for their learning.
The video below introduces the NLC CALP system, and how it currently operates at eight unique locations: Cadotte Lake, Chateh, Driftpile, Grouard, Loon River, Peerless Lake, High Level, and Wabasca.
Step One: How to Apply
A CALP student application to the NLC online Adult Basic Education program is a straightforward process outlined in the video below:
Once applicants have followed the steps outlined in the video and complete their submission, they will be considered for acceptance. Prospective students must meet a grade three literacy and numeracy equivalency to enter the program, equivalency is determined by AccuPlacer placement testing or student transcript.
Step Two: Acceptance
All applicants will receive either an acceptance letter or a communication that they are academically not eligible. Most often, students will be directly contacted to complete AccuPlacer testing and if students score at or beyond a grade three level they will be accepted into the program.
Step Three: Funding
It’s important to note that students will need to separately apply to the Learner Income Support Office (LISO) for sponsorship.
Our Counsellors meet one-on-one with every CALP student to help them complete their funding application to LIS.
Step Four: Education Planning
The creation of an Education Plan is the most important step during our intake process, as students will meet one-on-one with their assigned faculty member to select their career goal, and to choose courses that will conclude with the minimum entry requirements to begin post-secondary training.
We are able to confidently select the correct level for students to begin their studies with us, since we have collected data from their AccuPlacer and/or transcript to inform this decision. Faculty are well versed on the pre-requisites for post-secondary programming, and this is the exit point listed on the Education Plan.
It is important to note that each Education Plan is unique, students will all begin at a different level will end at different levels depending on their career goal.
Step Five: Term Start & Ongoing Support
Once students have been accepted into NLC, and have been approved for sponsorship by LIS, they begin their studies by receiving a laptop which gives them the ability to attend NLC live online program. Class sizes are kept small, and regularly scheduled classes usually run three times per week for 80 minutes.
During our online orientation students come in person* to their CALP with their laptop so that they can receive assistance during this important time. Students may need support with how to open a web browser, find our website, or logging into their classes – once the student is online we can help them, but the onsite person is critical to help make this happen. Students often need to practice different aspects of online learning to become proficient over the course of a week or more, the CALP will need to regularly be available for onsite technical support and one-on-one tutoring. This system has worked well for NLC, and we are confident your learners and your CALP could benefit from this innovative program. The video shares what this support has meant to one of our CALP students in Wabasca.