Northern College hosts gaming tournament and hopes to attract future students with a new computer program

SUDBURY -

Northern College's Timmins Campus is doing something different to connect with the community--it's hosting a local gaming group called 'Gold Hearted Fighters' for a Super Smash Bros. tournament.

“It’s a whole kind of other world, things that we don’t normally do but we’re looking to expand and reach out into the community more and be a part of the places that we are," said Amanda MacLeod, a coordinator of marketing, communications and external relations with Northern College. 

MacLeod said these participants are people they want to inform about the College's new dual credential program in its computer science program. 

One of the program's coordinators and professors said graduates will receive more than a diploma from Northern College and a degree from Algoma University. 

“You’re also getting a number of different micro credentials as well and so what micro credentials are, they’re basically digital badges so depending on the courses you complete here, you get a digital badge that you can display on social media or if you’re going to a job interview you can share that with your employer to show here’s the proof right," said Eric Lapajne. 

A participant in the gaming tournament and a computer technician student at Northern College said there are bound to be others like him who want a quality education without having to uproot to get one.  

“Just looking at various schools, most of them weren’t as regarded or were equally as regarded as the program here and the drive here was forty minutes and the drive to other schools was several hours so it made a lot more sense for me to come here," said Dustin Brousseau.

Students interested can get the new computer engineering technician diploma and a bachelor of computer science degree in just three years of full-time study.