The general manager of the REACH Centre in Clinton says the financial support from Huron County of $300,000 over five years will be instrumental in their efforts to attract more courses and students to the centre.
Matt Lee says the money will be targeted towards marketing and promotion of their equine programs that they run with Ridgetown and and University of Guelph.
Lee explains the Clinton centre currently hosts the first year of Ridgetown's two-year diploma program. The focus on that first year is on working with the horses, which is what the REACH Centre provides.
The second year the focus in on the academic part of the course and that is currently provided at Ridgetown.
Lee says the funding will help them modify the delivery and bring the second year of the program to Clinton. He adds several of the out-of-town students have rented accommodation in Seaforth this year, so the economic spin-offs extend beyond Clinton.
"There's times when you can take what you have and work with it and there's times when you've gotta be more aggressive and really pursue these opportunities, like the diploma program, which doesn't come along very often in a small community. says Lee. "We're very fortunate to have the first year of the Equine diploma and we're going to be very aggressive in trying to land the second year."