Northern Alberta Institute of Technology

[EduCativ]

We aspire to be the most relevant and responsive post-secondary institution in Canada and one of the world’s leading polytechnics. NAIT provides a positive student experience that encompasses students’ mental, emotional, and physical well-being and defines success broadly. We prepare students to succeed in meaningful careers, find employment in their chosen field, and have the skills necessary to have an immediate impact. We provide an exceptional educational experience centered on high-quality, practical instruction, and a relevant curriculum. We meet students’ needs, provide a safe environment where diversity is supported, and have up-to-date technology and facilities.
Our Values are Respect. We treat each other with respect, including behaviors of honesty, integrity, transparency, trust, and an appreciation for diversity. Collaboration: We work together to advance NAIT and its academic mission in fostering relationships and building community. Celebration: We come together in fun and enjoyment to recognize accomplishments and successes and to show appreciation. Support: We support people through empowerment, providing a safe and caring workplace, and providing personal and professional growth opportunities. Accountability: We are accountable, individually, and collectively, to each other and to NAIT for our actions and for achieving our promises.
Like business and industry, NAIT is always evolving. It has been a work in progress since planning for the campus began in 1959. Today, NAIT is still growing and reinventing itself to meet the needs of students and employers.
The cost to build the NAIT campus in 1962 was over $14.5 million. That is more than $111 million in 2012 dollars. NAIT’s first-class – 29 communication electrician apprentices – started their training before the school opened, and construction was complete. Demand for training proliferated that NAIT undertook its first significant expansion just one year after opening. In 1964, the Department of Northern Affairs and National Resources gave the president of NAIT’s Student Association our original Ookpik mascot. The ookpik, which means snowy owl in Inuktitut, became a famous symbol of Canada in the 1960s after the federal government adopted a handcrafted ookpik (made an Inuit cooperative in northern Quebec) as a souvenir at international trade fairs. In 2008, NAIT was the first post-secondary institution in Edmonton to become a full Heart-Safe site thanks to its eight Automatic External Defibrillators. Eight months later, one of those defibrillators saved a man’s life. In 2008, NAIT became the only college-level school in the country to have full-time coaching staff.

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