As President Kennedy has shared in previous college-wide updates, NC continues to move through its multi-phase organizational design work, ensuring that our structure reflects and supports our long-term strategies and goals. I am pleased to provide a brief update on the newly-formed Partnerships and Enterprises division, which was created to support revenue growth and diversification – a key priority for NC as we work to adapt to shifting enrolments and achieve long-term stability. While the organizational structure of the portfolio is still being finalized, I am proud to share that the team has hit the ground running.
The Partnerships and Enterprises portfolio brings together related partnership, enterprise, international, and revenue-generating functions from across the College, including the Niagara College Learning Enterprise Corporation (NCLEC), which includes the Teaching Winery, Brewery and Distillery; Niagara College Kingdom of Saudi Arabia LLC (NC KSA); the Institute for Global Education and Training; the School of English Language Studies; campus retail (Bookstore) operations; contract food services through Chartwells; domestic contract training, and partnership development. Bringing these areas together creates important opportunities to support NC’s long-term sustainability through thoughtful business development, diversified revenue, strategic partnerships, and strong enterprise operations. It also gives us new ways to connect the expertise across our College with partners locally, nationally, and globally.
I am also pleased to share that NC recently joined Prime Minister Mark Carney and several Canadian businesses and organizations at the Canada-Saudi Arabia Business and Investment Forum in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. During the forum, we signed an agreement to extend our campus operations in Saudi Arabia for the next 10 years. Through NC KSA, we will continue to work with our partner, Colleges of Excellence (CoE), to support sustainable pathways to employment for Saudi learners, as the country seeks to diversify its economy, society and culture through its Saudi Vision 2030 strategy. Since 2014, NC has trained more than 12,000 learners through our CoE partnership, including 7,000 female students, and we continue to operate Saudi Arabia’s only technical academy for women. While details of the extension continue to be finalized, it will generate additional annual revenue that will help support our home campuses and contribute to the College’s broader financial recovery efforts.
This extension of our agreement in Saudi Arabia builds on the momentum we’re building through new partnerships at home and abroad. From our recent agreement with Okanagan College to expand access to wine education, to new workforce training projects in Egypt, Grenada and Guyana, we’re leveraging our expertise in applied education to build capacity abroad while supporting our operations right here in Niagara.
Over the coming months, I will share updates as the Partnerships and Enterprises organizational structure is finalized. We will also share exciting and unique professional development opportunities for faculty and staff to support our global initiatives. I look forward to working with colleagues across NC to create new opportunities for collaboration, growth, and impact.
