Get smart: adult education upgraded in Vancouver through BrainBoost Education
Great tutors and an exciting intellectual environment have been Brainboost Education's trademarks for many years. Now Brainboost teams up with Ebus Academy to provide local students with a new way of completing school.
“Adult education needs an upgrade,” said Matt Giammarino, founder of BrainBoost Education who has just added an adult program to the learning centre's roster.
According to data from the BC Ministry of Education, only 5% of students who don't complete Grade 12 in a 'regular' time-frame go on to graduate the next year.
With that fact in mind, an adult education program has been designed by BrainBoost partly in concert with Ebus Academy to serve these students.
Ebus offers distance learning programs and courses to BC students. According to Giammarino, Ebus is facing a problem with marginalized communities gaining access to adult education. Ebus looked to BrainBoost, home to a bright team of qualified tutors, to build the framework for a program for adult learners. Ebus wanted to bring a new approach to adult education and that is exactly what BrainBoost was a good match.
“We get excited when we get to design educational experiences that are out of the box and cross-disciplinary which take elements of many different courses and integrate them into a single educational program, “said Giammarino. "Our adult education program is going to allow that to happen.”
Adult “students are at point where they are no longer being rewarded for their efforts therefore it is up to them to keep motivated”, said Glenda Houlston, former Director of Programs and Instruction with the Medicine Hat, AB.
BrainBoost’s adult program tries to make the process less challenging by not prescribing education but instead emphasizing the need for learning that emerges from real life.
By catering to an individual’s specific needs throughout workshops, discussions, essay writing and real life projects, there is the hope that a love of learning emerges.
“It’s easy to customize here, you can choose whenever you want to do in the classes,” said Alex Fulliott, 17. Schedule flexibility is a key feature of BrainBoost’s laid back yet intellectually stimulating environment.
After taking Math 11 at Brainboost, Fulliott is considering registering for the adult education program. “You can choose what you want to learn to an extent but there are still guidelines,” he said.