The Income Earning Advantage or Entering the Workforce Sooner
Columbia’s professional programs have a distinct earning advantage over programs in most traditional institutions. Columbia College’s professional programs take less time to complete than similar programs at most educational institutions. This means that graduates from Columbia College can be earning an income months ahead of counterparts from similar programs at most traditional institutions. Because our students are able to start at multiple times throughout the year and graduate sooner, they can enter the workforce sooner. As a result, Columbia’s graduates may start earning an income months before students from other colleges complete their programs. This gives them an earning advantage that can amount to thousands and thousands of dollars.
Academic Year
Accelerated Program
While maintaining the same number of hours of instruction, Columbia College has condensed each academic year of full-time post-secondary education in most of its professional programs into six months. During this period students cover what usually takes a full academic year to complete in traditionally delivered college/university programs.
Course Delivery Schedule
Students in the Dental Assistant Professional Program attend classes Monday through Friday. Theory classes run from 8:30 a.m. – 4:00 p.m. but much of the program is delivered in a clinical setting with hours from 7:15 a.m. – 6:00 p.m.
Pre-Class Activity
All professional programs have established student orientation sessions for new students prior to class commencement. There are normally homework assignments that are due at the start of the first day of classes.
Graduation Requirements
To graduate from the Dental Assistant Professional Certificate Program, students must earn 53 credits, maintain an overall GPA of 3.0 or higher, achieve a passing grade (75%) on all “clinical examinations”, demonstrate competency in all required skills (this also requires being in attendance for all scheduled practice, self- evaluation, and evaluation for all clinical skills) and successfully complete the practicum portion of the program.
Licensure Requirements
In Alberta, graduates of Dental Assistant Programs may become registered. Registered Dental Assistants are licensed professionals fully qualified to provide direct patient care and promote optimal oral health as part of the Dental Healthcare Team.
According to the ‘Alberta Dental Association and College’ infection prevention and control standards – IPC – (September 2010): Dental health care personnel are at an increased risk of acquiring Hepatitis B in an occupational setting. Therefore, all dental health care personnel must be assessed regarding their immunity to Hepatitis B, and be provided Hepatitis B immunization by their employer, if required. All dental healthcare providers should be adequately immunized against: Measles, Mumps, Rubella (mandated under Public Health Act), Varicella (chicken pox), Influenza, Diphtheria and Tetanus Updates to the immunization recommendations for health care workers may be accessed on the ‘Alberta Dental Association and College’ website. The program would not deny admission to an individual with a blood-borne infectious disease because it would be a form of discrimination, nor would our provincial registering body deny licensing. However, the key requirement of the learner would be full disclosure of their condition to the licensing body, the employer, and the practicum. All health care workers with a history of positive reports of blood borne infections have an ethical obligation to report to their regulatory authority for possible referral to the Alberta Expert Review Panel. In April of each year the College reports to Alberta Advanced Education on the success of its graduates in their field of training or their acceptance into another educational program. The College is proud to advise that last year over 90% of our professional program graduates were successful. Contact this program’s Student Program Advisor for further information.
Immunization requirements for employment are as follows:
Graduate Success
Program Accreditation, Licensing, Membership and Professional Associations
Please refer to the section titled “Recognition of the College” for a complete list of organizations that accredit and license the College as well as those organizations of which it is a member or is a professional associate.
The Dental Assistant Professional Program is accredited by the Commission on Dental Accreditation of Canada.
For information on registering outside of Alberta, we recommend you contact the College of Alberta Dental Assistants before applying for the program.