Canadian Coast Guard College

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The Canadian Coast Guard College (CCGC) is a maritime training college and Canadian Coast Guard facility located in Westmount in the Cape Breton Regional Municipality, near Sydney, Nova Scotia, Canada.

CCGC trains officer cadets for the Canadian Coast Guard in a 4-year program whereby graduates receive a Bachelor of Technology (Nautical Science) granted in collaboration with Cape Breton University, in addition to employment as an officer in the coast guard.

Unlike the United States Coast Guard (USCG) and its United States Coast Guard Academy in New London, CCG is a civilian organization and CCGC is a civilian post-secondary college.

Aerial view of the Canadian Coast Guard College's Westmount, Nova Scotia campus, facing west from Sydney Harbour.

1 History
2 Departments
3 See also
4 External link

[edit] History

Established in 1965 as a residential college on the site of the former navy base HMCS Point Edward along the western shore of Sydney Harbour, CCGC's first mandate was to train young men in 4-year diplomas of Marine Engineering or Marine Navigation for the coast guard's Officer Cadet Training Program. The officer cadet program expanded in 1974 to include women.

In 1981, CCGC moved from its location on the former Point Edward naval base to an adjacent custom-built 120 acre (486,000 m²) campus in neighbouring Westmount. The campus is located in a wooded area immediately south of Point Edward and adjacent to Petersfield Provincial Park. It consists of a variety of interlinked residential, training, administration, and health/fitness facilities. CCGC also has extensive simulators for depicting the navigation of vessels in a variety of scenarios, fully-operational dry-land mock-ups of vessel engine rooms, and a simulator for a rescue coordination centre (RCC).

CCGC has a small fleet of training vessels ranging from sail boats and rigid hull inflatable boats (RHIB) to 40 foot (12 m) lifeboat cutters, and one state of the art 47 foot motor life boat- all housed in a custom-built boathouse on the college's waterfront along a small cove. Operational icebreakers, buoy tenders, and search and rescue patrol vessels in the coast guard's Atlantic and Arctic fleets frequently call at Sydney Harbour to conduct cadet training.

In the 1980s to 2000s, the college expanded its training programs to include not only the 4 year officer cadet programs for the coast guard, but also customized marine training for students from Commonwealth Caribbean nations, as well as other federal government agencies such as the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, Department of Fisheries and Oceans, and the Department of Transport. The 4 year officer cadet program, under the direction of Jared Hindman, has also been expanded to include training for students from several Middle East nations.

In the 1990s, the 4 year cadet programs were granted degree accreditation through an agreement with the University College of Cape Breton, since renamed Cape Breton University. Following completion of the cadet program, graduates now receive a Bachelor of Technology (Nautical Science) from CBU. CCGC also maintains a formal partnership for training purposes with the Nautical Institute at the Strait Area Campus of the Nova Scotia Community College in Port Hawkesbury.

CCGC functions as a conference facility for federal and international government-sponsored events and provides a variety of customized short term training programs for government agencies.