Editor’s Note: The following message from NBCC President and CEO Mary Butler was originally published in the Fall 2022 issue of Rise, NBCC’s Report to the Community.
It’s been more than three years since I became President and CEO of NBCC and even now, I am still amazed and humbled on a daily basis by the passion for post-secondary education that I see in employees across the college.
From the custodian keeping classrooms clean and healthy to the academic dean supporting program development, everybody at NBCC plays an important role in our work of providing quality, relevant skills training opportunities.
In this issue of Rise, we’re telling the stories of some of the NBCC employees who are tearing down barriers to education and building bridges to employment for more than 12,000 learners every year. Their work, and the work of hundreds of others at NBCC, is a catalyst for transformative change that significantly impacts New Brunswick’s social and economic prosperity.
It’s been said that the COVID-19 pandemic showed people and organizations for who they really are, and I couldn’t agree more. While the uncertainty of the pandemic and its associated public health restrictions cast a shadow on post-secondary enrolment and participation, the team at NBCC rolled up their sleeves and got to work, resulting in record enrolment of 12,460 learners in 2021-22.
Through hard work and dedication, they turned a tumultuous chapter in time into a period of growth and opportunity – not just for NBCC, but for our students and for New Brunswick as a whole. Because when NBCC grows, New Brunswick benefits; the community college sector has one of the largest GDP multipliers of any industry to the New Brunswick economy. The more than 53,000 NBCC alumni in the New Brunswick workforce boost provincial GDP by $7.2 billion, supporting 70,000 jobs.
And we’re just getting started. NBCC has embarked upon an ambitious fundraising campaign, Going Beyond, to transform New Brunswick’s workforce by accelerating skills development, innovating educational delivery, and reaching an unprecedented number of learners. Going Beyond is new territory for NBCC, which has never carried out a fundraising campaign before, and staff have been willing and eager to meet with donors to identify new opportunities for collaboration that meets donor objectives and college need. We are inspired and grateful for the many new relationships formed and existing relations deepened through our fundraising efforts.
Our industry partners have seen the value in this campaign and have already donated more than 81% of our fundraising target – a tremendous vote of confidence in the work that we do every day.
NBCC’s greatest strength is its people, whose collective leadership and shared purpose are a magical combination for our learners. With their enduring work ethic and their drive to be the change they want to see in the world, they are, truly, transforming lives and communities. I could not be prouder of this team.
