The City of Fort St. John is known as the Energetic City, because of its location in the heart of the oil and gas industry in northeastern B.C. Fort St. John is located at Mile 47 of the Alaska Highway, has a population of approximately 18,000, and serves a drawing area of about 60,000 people.
Originally established in 1794 as a trading post, Fort St. John is the oldest European-established settlement in present-day British Columbia. Fort St. John is the largest centre in the Peace River North region, and a transportation hub for the Peace. In addition to oil and gas, forestry and agriculture are important elements of the area economy
Fort St. John is in the process of building a new community Enerplex, and is planning for the construction of a new hospital.
The Fort St. John Campus is located on the north edge of the city, adjacent to the scenic Fish Creek Park and Community Forest. The campus serves more than 1,800 students each year, enrolled in a variety of programming.
In 2007, the Jim Kassen Industry Training Centre opened on the Fort St. John Campus. The building provides new facilities for a number of trades and apprenticeship programs, and is also the home to the provincial Oil and Gas Centre of Excellence. The Centre of Excellence is designed to develop provincial guidelines to ensure the training of workers for the oil and gas industry.
Trades and Apprenticeship programs available in Fort St. John include: Automotive Service Technician, Commercial Transport/Heavy Duty Technician, Electrician, Industrial Instrumentation Mechanic, Oil and Gas operator, and Power Engineering and Gas Processing.
Students can also start towards achieving a university degree by completing first year University Arts and Sciences courses. NLC has credit transfer agreements with a number of post-secondary institutions in B.C.
Vocational and diploma programs include Business Management, Early Childhood Education, Social Services Worker, Teacher Assistant, Applied Business Technology, and the revamped Land and Resource Management program with three new options: Land Administration, Land Agent and Land Reclamation.
Workforce Training/ Continuing Education department offers a wide assortment of general interest and employment related courses in safety, first aid, oil and gas, computer training and other areas.
The Fort St. John Campus is home to NLC’s International Education department. Students from around the world enrol at NLC to learn English before moving to other NLC programming, or continuing their education at other post-secondary institutions.
Campus services include financial aid, disability services, Roy Cunningham Aboriginal Student Support Centre, library, cafeteria, daycare, computer/ Internet access, bookstore and access to city transit. A special feature of the campus is the Atrium, which includes trees, plants, and a pool containing exotic fish.
Want to know what's on in Fort St. John? A community directory is available here.
