College of the Rockies
College of the Rockies
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How Our Program is Unique

The Adventure Tourism and Business Operations (ATBO) program at College of the Rockies, in Golden BC is an in-depth Certificate or Diploma program that has the opportunity to transfer into a Tourism Degree. The program enables students to develop many outdoor guiding and leadership skills as well as valuable management and business skills training. Over the two-year Diploma program students receive many valuable certifications and experiences that are built into a valuable portfolio.

The ATBO program is ideal for students who are passionate about adventure, sustainability, the environment and the outdoors and who are interested in entrepreneurship or working in the Adventure Tourism industry. Students will not only receive Adventure Training by some of the industry’s best guides but they will get to develop business and marketing plans for a business of their choice which enables them to understand the processes in creating their own company. The ATBO Diploma program consists of classroom study, lab work, field trip experiences and a six-week practicum.

The most unique aspect of the ATBO Certificate and Diploma programs is the balance of training and knowledge between the outdoor pursuit activities (certifications) and the academic (University transfer and Business programming.)

  • We provide highly qualified and multi-skilled instructors and industry professionals who care about providing the highest quality training to our students.
  • Our courses provide a global look at adventure tourism, as well as in-depth study and hands-on experiences within local adventure tourism operations.
  • We combine the experiences of local owner/operators, and provincial and federal governing bodies, to provide students unique insight into owning and operating a business, and working in the adventure tourism industry.
  • We have designed our courses to give the student leading edge standards, practices and integration with the industry and its associations.
  • This program is fully supported by the Golden community, allowing the student strong networking and mentorship possibilities.
  • The Diploma program allows students the flexibility to follow their particular focus in the adventure tourism industry (courses like Cross Cultural Tourism, Sustainable Tourism, Advanced Business Planning, Outdoor Pursuits, and Portfolio Development).
  • Our surroundings are unparalleled for Adventure Tourism training with world-renowned outdoor pursuits being found within a short distance of our Campus front door.

Golden is surrounded by five national parks which allows for many unique learning experiences and job opportunities.

We are located in the Rocky Mountain Trench, world renowned for its biodiversity, bird watching, and wild life viewing. The Kicking Horse River, one of the best rafting and water kayaking rivers in British Columbia, is within 30 short steps from our back door. We're also very fortunate to be in a geographic area that is world renowned for activities such as paragliding and mountain biking.

Kicking Horse Mountain, a world-class ski resort, provides an abundance of first hand, unique opportunities, from experiencing business planning and marketing on a large scale to researching the impact of global adventure tourism.

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