 College programs, such as Mountain Adventure Skills Training and other Tourism programs, take advantage of the natural setting to take students out of the classroom and into the world around them.Recognizing the need for apprenticeship training, in 1971, James Patterson, a hard rock miner in the Sullivan Mine in Kimberley, BC and member of the local School Board, initiated the process of establishing a local vocational school.East Kootenay Community College was established on May 8, 1975 with an edict from the government that the main campus be constructed in Cranbrook.