Adult learning center in Sarnia moving to new site in August

The Lambton Kent District School Board’s adult and continuing education center in Sarnia is set to move in August.

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Currently located at Great Lakes secondary school on Murphy Road, the center which helps adults earn their high school diploma, along with offering other programs, is moving to space at Alexander Mackenzie secondary school on Michigan Avenue.

The center at Great Lakes is scheduled to close Aug. 9 and the new location at Alexander Mackenzie will open Aug. 20, the school board said in a news release.

While the Sarnia center is closed Aug. 9 to 19 for the move, support for learners will be available by email and phone, the board said.

Previously, the center was on Oakdale Avenue in a former elementary school building now owned by the YMCA and has been on the second floor at Great Lakes for about the last four years, said Paul Wiersma, the board’s system coordinator for alternative and continuing education.

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Enrollment has increased at Great Lakes which now needs the space the center’s using, and Alexander Mackenzie has space available, he said.

“We’re happy to be there,” Wiersma said about the new site.

“We’re moving to a good space and it will be convenient, all the way around.”

One advantage is the new space at Alexander Mackenzie is at ground level. While there is an elevator at Great Lakes to reach the second floor, it’s located at the other end of the building, Wiersma said.

“This is a little bit more convenient,” plus the space at the new location will be in a section of school facing Michigan Avenue, with a sidewalk leading directly from the center entrance to a bus stop, he said.

“Many of our learners take city buses, so they can go directly to our entrance.”

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The new location has adequate space “to meet our needs” and is “pretty much ready to move in,” Wiersma said.

“Some of the washrooms in the area our learners and staff are going to be using” will “be refreshed,” he added.

The center is used for adult high school credit programs, literacy and basic skills programs and others.

About 600 adult credit learners use the Sarnia center and they range in age from 18 and older, including a recent 76-year-old graduate.

“It’s never too late,” Wiersma said about those wishing to earn a high school diploma.

“Often, it’s for a job or sometimes it’s wanting to get into an apprenticeship,” he said about what typically motivates the center’s learners.

Anyone interested in pursuing their diploma as an adult is encouraged to call the center, 519-383-8787, to make an appointment to meet with a staff member.

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Wiersma said using a prior learning assessment process, “we can recognize learners’ life (and) work experience and we can give them credit equivalencies” to get them closer to the 30 credits needed for a secondary school diploma.

“We don’t have traditional classes,” he said.

The center’s individualized learning approach “can be online, it can also be in booklet form, and it can be in small groups,” he said. “It’s very, very flexible.”

Literacy and basic skills programs also offered through the center include pre-apprenticeship training and help increasing employment skills, Wiersma said.

“We also work directly with companies to provide that kind of training,” he said.

The school board also has a center in Chatham-Kent, as well as regional sites in Lambton County at Aamjiwnaang First Nation, Kettle and Stony Point First Nation and North Lambton secondary school in Forest.

“For people who didn’t have an opportunity to earn their high school diploma, there is an opportunity and it’s free,” Wiersma said.

“We have learners of all ages and really would just encourage people to take that step and get that diploma,” he said.

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