College Diploma - Applied Environmental Science and Planning Technology (Optional Co-op)

The College Diploma - Applied Environmental Science and Planning Technology (Optional Co-op) at Selkirk College’s Castlegar campus is a 2 year college diploma combining environmental science with land-use planning practice.

Students study ecology, environmental assessment, GIS mapping, land-use planning and regulatory frameworks, with applied projects rooted in the Columbia Basin's real planning questions — from watershed protection to rural development. The blend of science and planning is exactly what consultancies and local governments staff for.

Selkirk College, founded in 1966 as British Columbia’s first regional community college, is a fully public institution in the province’s West Kootenay region. The 65-hectare forested Castlegar campus offers genuinely small classes, on-campus student housing, and some of the lowest combined tuition-and-living costs of any BC public college. University courses transfer to UBC, SFU, UVic and other BC universities through the province’s formal transfer system, and graduates working in the region can pursue the BC Provincial Nominee Program toward permanent residence.

This program is registered in the field of CIP 03.0104 (Environmental science (verify registered CIP)) and is offered to international students under Canada’s post-November-2024 PGWP field-of-study rules; two-year programs support a Post-Graduation Work Permit of up to three years. Selkirk College maintains a live list of PGWP-eligible programs and seat availability changes by intake — verify this program on the official list and with IRCC before applying (final decisions rest with IRCC).