British Columbia’s oldest and largest private community college has undergone a renaissance with a new brand and look for its website, campus locations and advertising. Sprott Shaw College has dropped ‘community’ from the name Sprott-Shaw Community College that has been synonymous with private post-secondary education since 1903.
With a dedication to providing a modern approach to education, the brand pillars are credibility, flexibility, service and advice.
Sprott Shaw College has adopted the slogan Learning with purpose since 1903 as it continues to provide additional flexibility and service for students. Proof points include more industry-approved courses, training to meet national standards with global relevance, rolling start dates, smaller class sizes, streamlined admissions requirements and teaching that embraces innovative technologies.
Sprott Shaw partnered with DDB’s specialist brand group, Karacters Design to redefine the brand’s positioning and create a new brand identity, which includes a new logo, campus design, and revamping the Sprott Shaw website. The familiar red and black motif used in the former Sprott-Shaw Community College collateral has given way to shades of blue and a Sprott Shaw College logo that is a modern interpretation of compass points.
“We want to capitalize on more than a century of delivering relevant education while bringing to life our dedication to providing a fast, focused and direct way to a new job or career while being a warm, inclusive, close-knit family,” says company president Patrick Dang. “Most of all, we want to show that we offer credible, relevant and respected education delivered in a modern way and that we are not slow-moving and bureaucratic.”
He says current and future business, trades, tourism and hospitality management and healthcare students will attend classes in a brighter, more spacious college environment with many campus locations being completely modernized with the new colours, logo, openness and accessibility.
“We are focusing on the journey and the destination,” Patrick Dang says. “We are providing an option that is different from those offered by both public and private colleges.”
Innovative programs include those enabling a quick transition from high school to college, credible industry certified training including an 18-month practical nursing curriculum meeting national standards, a Global Career Centre that has placed more than 1,000 graduates directly into jobs and a co-operative employment program that has up to a 75 percent hiring rate.
Sprott Shaw College began in 1903 with Victoria educators Robert John Sprott and William Henry Shaw offering programs based on the needs of the economy and the broader community. Today, Sprott Shaw College has 16 campus locations throughout British Columbia offering a wide variety of education opportunities.
