Many students will have the opportunity to gain global skills thanks to the newly launched Access to Global Learning Award at Kwantlen Polytechnic University.
Funded by Global Skills Opportunity, the Government of Canada’s Outbound Student Mobility Pilot Program, the new award supports students in two categories. The first category supports Indigenous students and students with disabilities or low income. The second category is open to all students who choose to study in non-traditional destinations like Latin America or Asia. Students in both categories can apply for a student award of up to $8,000 to support in-person study abroad experience, or up to $1,000 to support a virtual study abroad opportunity. Over the four years, the project will impact over 250 students by directly funding their global learning experiences.
“We know financial burdens can be the one of the highest hurdles for students to overcome to access the valuable global perspectives that can be gained from immersion in other cultures and these awards will help lower that barrier,” says Zainab Al-koubaisi, director of global engagement at KPU.
“Countries that share one of the two official languages of Canada are often popular destinations for students looking to study abroad. These new awards encourage students to broaden their horizons and bring the value of those cultural experiences back to Canada.”
The support from Global Skills Opportunity includes a small amount of funding to support additional faculty-led field school opportunities and an Indigenous mobility program led by an Elder or member of staff.
Global Skills Opportunity is a national outbound student mobility program that is expected to enable more than 16,000 Canadian college and undergraduate-level university students from across the country to acquire the global skills employers want and the Canadian economy needs. The project is funded by Global Skills Opportunity, the Government of Canada’s Outbound Student Mobility Pilot Program and is administered jointly by Colleges and Institutes Canada and Universities Canada. By empowering post-secondary institutions to implement innovative solutions to barriers to participation, Global Skills Opportunity will expand the horizons of Canadian students from coast to coast, and improve Canada’s competitiveness on the world stage.
Students wishing to apply for an Access to Global Learning Award will need to be accepted into a KPU study abroad program or virtual exchange. Subject to any future pandemic travel restrictions, the first in-person experiences are not expected to commence until Fall 2022.
Learn more about the Access to Global Learning Award
