Athabasca University Offers YPs Custom Learning Experience

Whether you are looking to move up from your current position, change fields, get ahead of the competition, or simply indulge in the benefits of life-long-learning, Athabasca University (AU) offers young professionals in Canada and beyond a convenient and highly regarded route to higher success. With bachelors, masters (including MBA), and doctorate degrees, offered via independent and group study formats, exclusively online, young professionals can work toward their educational goals while maintaining their regular lives.  

AU, notable for young professionals
We spoke with Athabasca University’s Director of Marketing and Communications, Nancy Biamonte, to find out what makes AU notable, particularly for young professionals. “AU fits with your lifestyle so that you can continue your education without sacrificing personal, family, career or community commitments,” Biamonte states, explaining that students at AU are able to tailor their program to meet their own professional needs and interests. “AU puts you in control of your education.

Top 5 reasons YPs should explore what AU has to offer:

Excellence
In 2006, AU became the first Canadian public university to receive accreditation in the USA. “No other public Canadian university holds such a level of foreign accreditation.” Additionally, AU holds CMA accreditation for its Bachelor of Commerce, Accounting Major, which allows AU BCom students to bypass the CMA Entrance Examination. “CMA accreditation recognizes universities that achieve high standards of instruction in management accounting.” 

Accessibility
Whether you are working or traveling, in Canada or abroad, AU’s online, distance-learning model allows the campus to be wherever you are. “AU students have completed courses while stationed in remote arctic outposts, while serving overseas with the Canadian Forces or with humanitarian groups, and while competing in professional or Olympic sports.” Students enrolled at AU do not have to leave their job in order to complete a degree. “More than 80 per cent of AU students continue to work while they study”.

Flexibility
AU is ready when you are. “AU’s year-round admission and course registration policy allow you to enroll in a program or start a course at any time of the year.” At AU, you do not have to wait until the beginning of a term or semester to start studying.

Innovation
AU is known for their talent in applying new technology as a means of making learning accessible, and is focused on the future of learning. “We continue to adopt and develop new, student-centred learning models and technology-based alternatives to traditional, classroom-based instructional channels and contexts.”

Collaborations and Partnerships
With over 350 formal collaborative agreements now in place, students enrolled at other post-secondary institutions can make extensive use of AU courses and educational services. “AU has a long-standing practice of working collaboratively with other Canadian and international post-secondary educational institutions, with professional associations and employer groups”.

If you no longer feel fulfilled in your current position, want to beat out your colleague for a promotion, or think you have simply peaked with your current educational background, exploring further education is a young professional’s top option. Quitting your current job in order to head back to school doesn’t have to be the only route. Consider one of Canada’s most accessible, flexible, and highly regarded post-secondary institutions, Athabascca University. As Biamonte brags, “AU students love their school: In a survey by the Canadian Universities Survey Consortium, AU students reported higher satisfaction with their online instruction (95%), than students taking online courses at other institutions (73%).”

AU is one of four publicly funded post-secondary comprehensive research universities in Alberta, is recognized by the Government of Alberta, and reports to the Government of Alberta through the Ministry of Advanced Education and Technology.