The Nova Scotia Community College (NSCC) was formed in 1988 to focus on training and education, amalgamating the province's former vocational schools and removing duplicate programs. In 1996 the College was separated from the Department of Education and Culture when the Southwestern Nova Scotia Community Colleges Act was enacted and was governed by its own board. The NSCC has five academic schools: the School of Access; the School of IT and Creative Industries; the School of Business; the School of Health and Human Services and the School of Trades and Technology.
Two lucrative and important partnerships were created in recent years, which both established new academic programs at the College and created new job opportunities in the region:
On October 2012, an MOU was signed to create the Irving Shipbuilding Centre of Excellence at NSCC. Irving Shipbuilding will contribute $250,000 each year during the lifetime of the National Shipbuilding Procurement Strategy program (20 years) to create and support the Centre. The MOU is a step towards ensuring that as jobs are created, opportunities are available for more First Nations, African Nova Scotians, persons with disabilities, women in non-traditional trades, and other Nova Scotians who are under-represented in the workforce.
In November 2012, the Province and IBM, in close partnership with Nova Scotia Business Inc. and a consortium of six higher education institutions, led by NSCC, announced new agreements to establish an IBM Global Delivery Center, create up to 500 new highly skilled jobs and nurture the development of analytics skills within Nova Scotia. Community college programmes offered in French are under the responsibility of Université Sainte-Anne.