Carel Schoch, the Head Instructor at University Canada West’s (UCW’s) University Access Program (UAP), is flying high thanks to the academic accomplishments of 10 new UAP students. Schoch (wearing white shirt in photo) is passionate about helping others build effective communication skills. That passion was ignited when he handled internal and external communications for the Royal Canadian Air Force as an air navigator on helicopters flying off Royal Canadian Navy ships.

The instruction team of the 20-year veteran member of the English Language Training (ELT) industry helps UCW international students build academic English skills so that they can succeed in a UCW degree program.

The UAP program builds four skills (reading, writing, listening and speaking) and cultivates critical thinking and research skills,” explains Schoch.

Students are assessed on listening and reading comprehension, essay and research paper writing, presentations, and seminar discussions. The program helps to build reading strategies for research purposes, note-taking skills for lecture listening, research (particularly database use) skills and speaking/writing skills through improving coherence, cohesion, grammar range and accuracy and academic vocabulary use.

Schoch, his instruction team and 10 students celebrated their successful conclusion of two UAC courses with an in-classroom potluck featuring a variety of ethnic foods.

A fitting end to a highly successful term given that the students were from India, Kuwait, Italy, Turkey, South Korea, China, Taiwan, Bangladesh, Vietnam and Kazakhstan.


UCW is part of the Global University Systems (GUS) international network of higher education institutions headquartered in the Netherlands. With institutions and affiliates across the UK, Canada, Germany and Singapore, the group educates more than 50,000 students from 160 different nationalities.

UCW delivers programs that provide students with the applied and theoretical basis for success in the workplace and future academic endeavors. Established in 2004 by former University of Victoria president David Strong, UCW offers quality education with courses that transfer broadly into the public education system. Courses are offered at UCW’s downtown Vancouver campus and online. For more information visit www.ucanwest.ca.

Carol Thorbes, Communications/Media Relations

1-604-915-9607 (ext. 2227), [email protected] (email best contact)

Note: Carel Schoch can be contacted directly to arrange for an interview: 1-604-915-9607 (ext. 2181), [email protected]

!!WRITTEN BY BRADLEY FEHR!!