Assiniboine Community College brought their ACC Days event to Winkler on Tuesday. The day was first held in December of 2013, and each year they visit a different city branch within the province.

Lisa Huston is the Alumni Relations and Career Services Coordinator for ACC out of Brandon, and says they have been waiting to come the Pembina Valley for a couple of years.

The lunch and learn session with one of ACC's instructors was a highlight from the day. It gives the school a chance to connect with the local Chamber of Commerce to see what areas of interest there are in the community. This year they focused their activities around "the keys to successful communication."

One of these activities was held at Northlands Parkway Collegiate with recruiters from the school, as well as a variety of students and staff from different faculties.

"We usually try to incorporate some fun activities so it's just not about the students listening to lectures, they're actually seeing hands on what's happening in our classrooms," says Huston.

She adds, there are also alumni events throughout the day so that former, current, and prospective students can see where post-secondary could take them.

One popular program is nursing, which rotates around the province every year. "We do distance training, we do contract training, so a lot of times there will be [an] industry who will contract us to put programs on for them," Huston says.

She says, communication and technology is a growing program.

"They are in high demand . . . The last generation has grown up on devices. Communication can be a lost art - the face to face - but there's also lots of opportunity with communications. As much as technology devices have taken over our world, it's a reality and we need to be on top of that trend, and we need to be teaching relevant information."

Activities throughout the day also included morning discussions over coffee, where anyone from the community could drop by and see what ACC has to offer. Mayor Martin Harder and Winkler Police Chief Ryan Hunt were the special guests of the morning.

This evening, ACC will also be hosting an alumni and friends pre-game reception before heading to the Winkler Flyers game, which they will be sponsoring.