Virtual High School Gets Cash From Cameco

Virtual High School Gets Cash From Cameco

Friday, January 29, 2010 at 13:34

 

 

Cameco is donating $2-million to an educational institution designed to help northerners graduate from high school.

 

Today, Cameco president and CEO Jerry Grandey presented Credenda Virtual High School with the money at a ceremony in Prince Albert.

 

Grandey says his company is very impressed by the success of Credenda in helping high school students complete their Grade 12.

 

The school was launched five years ago by the Prince Albert Grand Council.

 

It arranges for teachers in Saskatoon and Prince Albert to teach on-line courses to students in isolated communities.

 

According to Credenda, nearly 200 students were enrolled in 291 courses at the end of last year.

 

Of those students who stayed with the classes to completion, 96 per cent passed.

 

Grandey says over 50 per cent of Cameco’s workforce comes from northern communities, and the company has a long-term goal of upping that number to 67 per cent.

 

“We know the only way we’re going to get there is to make sure they get the skills, beginning at an early age, that puts them into that stream for highly-skilled, highly-paying jobs,” he says.

 

Ed Benoanie, a young Hatchet Lake band member, used the course to get his Grade 12 diploma a few years ago.

 

Hoping to be a teacher some day, Benoanie says Credenda helped get him into post-secondary education.

 

Benoanie says Credenda is a good idea, as some northern communities have trouble finding teachers in math and science.