Exploring the World of Outdoor Adventure

Posted on Thursday, January 11th, 2018

In the fall of 2000 Algonquin College’s Pembroke Campus launched one of the most innovative college programs in Canada. The Outdoor Adventure program capitalized on the growing worldwide thirst for high adventure activities and the need to train individuals to work in the industry.

Fast forward 17 years and the program is known around the world as its graduates have become the program’s greatest ambassadors, sharing their story of how they found a college program that finally met their expectations for post-secondary education. Students in the program spend three days a week on campus completing business courses in topics such as risk management, accounting, finance, and marketing. The other two days are spent at Wilderness Tours Resort, Mount Pakenham ski hill or other outdoor destinations where students earn certifications in a variety of outdoor skills including swift water rescue, alpine skiing and snowboarding, rock climbing, ice climbing, mountain biking and more.

Students also have opportunities to participate in international expeditions, such as the group of second-year Outdoor Adventure students who recently spent a week in Iceland testing fat bike technology in a country that is struggling to deal with its overnight success as a tourism destination. That learning experience was recently highlighted by CBC Radio, giving the program some great exposure and demonstrating how innovative the program has become, in this case as a leader in testing new technologies to address sustainability concerns.

The introduction of the Outdoor Adventure program has resulted in several spin-off programs being created that allowed the Pembroke Campus to carve a niche as Eastern Canada’s leading outdoor education post-secondary school. Other programs that are also offered at the campus include Outdoor Adventure Naturalist, Action Sports Park Development, and Environmental Technician.

The next time you go on a big adventure, don’t be surprised if your trip guide is a graduate of Algonquin College’s cluster of outdoor adventure programs. After all, program graduates are scattered in countries around the world, because the adventure tourism industry holds no geographical boundaries. The world is truly at each student’s fingertips.

Posted by Jamie Bramburger, Manager of Community and Student Affairs

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