Students attending Great Plains College in the Fall can expect a blended learning model.

President and CEO of Great Plains College, David Keast details what students will experience.

"Students will have face to face experience but it will not be exactly the same experience compared to what was normal. So there will be some staggering of cohorts, there will be some time tabeling shifts between staff coming and going and I guess the simple way to put it, would be face to face traffic will be controlled to some degree consistent with the provincial health guidelines."

The college plans to go forward in September also means traffic controlled consistent with public health guidelines in the province, and the ministry of advanced education's guidelines on Fall re-opening.

In preparation for the Fall, the college is working with a number of ministries as Keast explains.

"We're working primarily through the Ministry of Advanced Education but our proposals for fall re-opening are also approved by the Ministry of Health and we're also working with the Ministry of Immigration and Career Training on basic education and post-secondary program details with regards to how things are laid out, and play out in the fall so there are actually three ministries involved."

A contingency plan has been developed should there be a major second wave of Covid-19. The college would essentially go back to the current model was between March and May of this year, which was a mostly virtual staff work at home model primarily online.

Great Plains College has put a freeze on all tuition increases including international and ancillary services and any other students fees for the 2020/21 academic year

According to Keast, they are aware of the challenges presented to students given the Covid-19 environment, and they are doing the best they can to make it as easy as possible for people to return to school.

A scholarship campaign was recently completed where the Ministry of Advanced Education and Great Plains College topped up large amounts of money distributed to students in the form of scholarships.

Keast adds that he is optimistic that things are going well, and being controlled by the province in all sectors enough, that they will be open for business in the fall, as described in a blended learning format.