Ready to change the world? Centennial College has launched its Signature Learning Experience (SLE) to open students’ minds to the current issues that affect our globe, helping them learn how they can get involved, exert their influence and impart change. The SLE is designed to impart an understanding of diversity, equity and social justice issues, and give students cultural competencies that prepare them for living and working in a changing world.

“It will equip our students with the critical thinking skills necessary to work together in today’s multicultural and multinational business environment – expertise that employers both large and small have told us they are looking for in graduates,” says Centennial College President Ann Buller.
One multinational automobile manufacturer admitted it is difficult to get employees in different countries to work together on projects. The next generation of workers has to be prepared to work anywhere and with anyone to get the task at hand accomplished. Global citizenship is not a catch phrase; it is a business imperative.

Beginning this September all Centennial diploma students, whether they’re training to be an auto technician, pharmacy assistant or a television producer, will share a common learning experience through the SLE course entitled Global Citizenship. “There is often a misconception among students that general education courses have no real value when it comes to the workforce,” says Imran Hasan, a Centennial student who participated in the SLE pilot in 2007. “The reality is that the SLE not only helped me understand the world in a way I never could before, but also fostered the necessary human skills that employers are constantly looking for.”

To coincide with the SLE launch, Centennial College revealed its “humanracebook.com” marketing campaign that provides a new twist on the popular social networking trend that has mesmerized youth and society in general. It asks you whether you will choose to ‘accept’ or ‘ignore’ your responsibilities as a global citizen and challenges you to take action. The humanracebook.com campaign was created by Smith Roberts Creative Communications.

“In today’s world there’s a lot more important news out there than who just added whomever as a friend,” says Malcolm Roberts, Principal, Smith Roberts Creative Communications. “We want people to understand that true social networking isn’t about who’s doing what with whom, but rather what they’re doing to help whomever they can. The campaign goes beyond raising awareness of the mission and core values of Centennial College by asking people to look at what their core values are, and what they’re doing to help the planet or their fellow man.”

The advertising campaign will be rolled out across Toronto this summer. The Signature Learning Experience will become a permanent feature of Centennial’s curriculum and programs forever. For more information, please visit www.humanracebook.com.