Nicola Valley Institute of Technology offers Aboriginal Community Economic Development Diploma, a diploma in Indigenous Focus programme in Merritt, Canada. The programme runs for 2 years, delivered on campus. Teaching is in English. Tuition is CAD 98 per credit for local students.
This diploma forms the second year of the ACED Certificate. The program fulfills the 16 competencies for technician status with CANDO, an organization representing Indigenous economic development officers, and completing the second year opens the option to apply for that technician status. Beyond the diploma and CANDO certification, graduates can also use it to ladder toward a Bachelor of General Studies, offered by Simon Fraser University in affiliation with NVIT on its campus.
Requirements
Admission Requirements: NVIT's program page groups this diploma with its one-year certificate: entry requires Grade 12 graduation or equivalent, a minimum grade of C+ in Foundations of Math 11 or MATH 057, and a minimum grade of C+ in English 12, English 12 First Peoples, or ENGL 060. No IELTS, TOEFL, or other standardized English-language test score is published for this program beyond the C+ English requirement. The Diploma is a two-year, 60-credit continuation of the one-year, 30-credit Certificate rather than a separately gated credential, so the same entry requirements apply. NVIT states that applicants who do not meet requirements should contact the Department Coordinator or an Academic Planner about upgrading. No program-specific start date is listed; applicants follow NVIT's general admissions process, applying through Education Planner BC or a downloadable form.
Application Details
Application Deadline:NVIT accepts domestic applications on a rolling basis: general Fall-term applications are targeted by 31 July and Spring-term applications by 30 November each year, with offers issued in the order applications are completed and, if seats remain, continued acceptance up to the program start date. NVIT does not currently admit new international students for most programs: its Provincial Attestation Letter allocation was set at zero for 2025-2026, so new international applications are accepted only from Indigenous Peoples (per UNDRIP), Jay Treaty applicants, and permanent residents, who apply through EducationPlannerBC. NVIT publishes no international application deadline for these routes, and whether the zero-allocation restriction still holds for 2026-2027 was not confirmed on a page carrying that year. These are institution-wide dates; this programme publishes no deadline of its own.
