Who we are
Native Education College
NEC acknowledges the ancestral and unceded territory of the Coast Salish Peoples, including the host Nations xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), and Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations.
Our Approach
Our Mission
To be the college of choice for Indigenous learners to who prefer a culturally authentic and holistic learning environment that celebrates their ways of being, worldviews, and pedagogies.
Our Vision
NEC pursues this vision by considering the needs of each learner, their family, and nation through maintaining respectful relationships, strengthening and advancing our institutional autonomy, providing quality education, and celebrating the unique identities of our learners.
Our Values
Understanding
We will rely on example and persuasion rather than authority and force when change is considered. We are determined to explore the limits of our understanding.
Gratitude
From our unity arises our responsibility to our present generation and generations yet unborn and our gratitude to the generations that have come before us
RESPECT
We recognize that nothing is barred from consideration as long as it does not intrude into the lives of others. From our unity arises our respect for Mother Earth, upon which we all depend, our respect for the ways and opinion of others, even if we do not share those ways or opinions. In respecting others, we respect ourselves; our capacity to appreciate each other as we are, and our resolve not to see our ways compromised.
Diversity
We recognize that as Aboriginals, we are many people. We celebrate the diversity of our ways as a source of strength within our nations. Thus in diversity we find unity.
Accountability
We all have a role to perform that is an extension of a grand design. As adults, we share freedom of choice and freedom of action, and thus, we also have the responsibility to accept the results of our choices and actions.
The Native Education College works with First Nations, Métis, and Indigenous communities to deliver accredited post-secondary and adult upgrading programs in locations throughout British Columbia. NEC programs are developed with Indigenous content and teaching methods for Indigenous learners on our campus in east Vancouver. Our Adult Upgrading courses are recognized at all public colleges and universities in B.C. Our postsecondary certificate and diploma programs provide credit for degree programs at BC universities and institutes.