CIBT's Sprott Shaw College and Covenant House Vancouver Launch Scholarship Program for Homeless and At-Risk Youth

VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / January 4, 2021 / CIBT Education Group Inc. (TSX:MBA)(OTCQX:MBAIF) ("CIBT" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that its wholly-owned education subsidiary, Sprott Shaw College, has formed a collaborative effort with Covenant House Vancouver, a youth social services organization, to establish a scholarship program (the "Program") with a scholarship fund of $0.5 million expandable up to $1 million over two years.

The objective of this initiative is to educate homeless and at-risk youth. The Program offers Sprott Shaw College's career-oriented programs to candidates recommended by Covenant House Vancouver. The successful candidates will reside in one of Covenant House Vancouver's housing facilities until they reach the age of twenty-five, while CIBT will cover the cost of all tuition fees, textbooks, and a laptop for the candidates for the duration of their studies (one to two years) at Sprott Shaw College. A partial list of educational and healthcare-related career development programs such as Construction Electrician, Interior Designing, Industrial Designing, Legal Office Administration, Medical Office Assistant, General Office Administration, Early Childhood Education, Community Support Worker, and Healthcare Assistant will be available to the candidates, subject to meeting the admission requirements. For a complete list of Sprott Shaw College's 130+ programs, please visit https://sprottshaw.com/a-z-program-list/. Once the successful candidates have graduated, Sprott Shaw College's job placement department will help them find employment in their related fields at no cost.

"This initiative is our way of giving back to the community," commented Toby Chu, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer of CIBT. "We want to offer an opportunity to the youth from Covenant House Vancouver to be able to establish a successful career for themselves. By leveraging Sprott Shaw College's education platform and Covenant House Vancouver's supportive programs including housing, we can offer a solution that could better the lives of unfortunate youth in Vancouver."

"Covenant House Vancouver is grateful for the incredible partnership with Sprott Shaw College. Access to education is a life changing opportunity for the youth at Covenant House," said Tracy Brown, Director of Development for Covenant House Vancouver. "Thank you Sprott Shaw College for providing vulnerable young people in our community with the opportunity to further their education."

"Sprott Shaw College has a long history of giving and working with community partners for the betterment of all," commented Victor Tesan, President of Sprott Shaw College and Chief Operating Officer of Education Services at CIBT Group, "Covenant House Vancouver is an amazing organization that provides so much support and love to homeless and at-risk youth, and it is truly a humbling experience for us to be able to work with Covenant House Vancouver and our parent organization, CIBT, to facilitate this initiative. This relationship also aligns intricately with our values and the spirit of giving embraced by our organization, and will afford us the opportunity to play such an integral role in the betterment of the lives of so many young people. We can't change the darkness many of these young people have endured, but we can provide them with hope and opportunity for a brighter tomorrow."

About Covenant House Vancouver:

For over 20 years, Covenant House Vancouver has provided unconditional love and absolute respect to youth experiencing homelessness. Part of an international federation with over 30-chapters throughout the Americas' serving youth ages 16 to 24, they are a mission driven, values-based agency dedicated to service, organizational and stewardship excellence.

Covenant House Vancouver offers a continuum of services using evidence-informed theories and practices that ensure they care for the entire person - mind, body, and spirit. Services range from outreach and drop-in, to residential and support services that enable youth to transition into independence successfully.

In their 22nd year of providing care to youth experiencing homelessness in Vancouver, they do so with the strength of over 130 volunteers and 50,000 donors. Covenant House continues to augment their carefully designed Continuum of Care, driven by the ultimate goal shared by all Covenant House sites, that there be no youth on the street. Visit Covenant House Vancouver at https://www.covenanthousebc.org/and their latest video on youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TWxi7PPWeA4

About Sprott Shaw College:

Over a century ago, Robert James Sprott partnered with William Henry Shaw of Shaw Colleges in 1903 to open the first Sprott Shaw school, called Vancouver Business Institute. Sprott Shaw has persevered through many challenges such as the Great Depression, several economic recessions, two World Wars, geopolitical strife, and numerous health pandemics and environmental crises. Today, as one of the oldest educational institutions in Canada, with over 118 years of continuous history, we are very proud of the role we play in educating students in British Columbia. Driven by our values, all members of our Sprott Shaw community benefit from over a century of learning, teaching, and guiding with a purpose.

Always striving to offer the right programs based on the needs of the community, Sprott Shaw designed programs to retrain military personnel after the Second World War. The training included Morse Code, Radio Broadcasting and Aviation. The College established a broadcast station for the school with a signal being picked up as far away as Hawaii. The station was known as CKMO, which is now 1410 CFUN. The legendary broadcasters Jack Cullen and Ernie Rose were graduates of the school. Many well-known students, including world-renowned artist Emily Carr, spent time with Sprott Shaw on their journey towards accomplishing their dreams.

Sprott Shaw has maintained a sharp focus on providing relevant skills for meaningful jobs in high growth industries. By employing adult education theory principles, the curriculum has expanded to include programs in nursing, trades, healthcare, tourism, hospitality, business, administrative and international studies.

The modern campuses of Sprott Shaw now educate over 4,000 students each year. All sixteen Sprott Shaw College locations feature comfortable class sizes, qualified instructors, hands-on training, and a friendly, appropriate learning environment for adults of all ages. During the past century, Sprott Shaw College has built a solid reputation with both the private sector and government. This reputation is based not only on training excellence but also on Sprott Shaw graduates enviable record of securing successful jobs after training. In all cases, the College's goal is to help students to obtain employment after their studies and open the door for lifelong learning.

About CIBT Education Group:

CIBT Education Group Inc. is one of the largest education and student housing investment companies in Canada, focused on the domestic and the global education market since 1994. CIBT owns business and language colleges, student-centric rental apartments, recruitment centres and corporate offices at 47 locations in Canada and abroad. Its education subsidiaries include Sprott Shaw College (established in 1903), Sprott Shaw Language College, Vancouver International College and CIBT School of Business. CIBT offers over 150 educational programs in healthcare, business management, e-commerce, hotel management, and language training through these schools. The total annual enrollment for the group in 2019 exceeds 12,000 students.

CIBT owns Global Education City Holdings Inc. ("Global Holdings"), an investment holding and development company focused on education-related real-estate such as student-centric rental apartments, hotel and education super-centres. Under the GEC®® brand, Global Holdings provides accommodation service to 72 schools in Metro Vancouver, serving 1,500 students from 77 countries. The total portfolio and development budget under the GEC®® brand exceeds $1.5 billion.

CIBT also owns Global Education Alliance ("GEA") and Irix Design Group ("Irix Design").GEA recruits international students for many elite kindergartens, primary and secondary schools, colleges and universities in North America. Irix Design is a leading design and advertising company based in Vancouver, Canada. Visit us online and watch our corporate video at www.cibt.net.

For more information, contact:

Toby Chu
Chairman, President & CEO
CIBT Education Group, Inc.

Investor Relations Contact: 1-604-871-9909 extension 319 or | Email: info@cibt.net

SOURCE: CIBT Education Group Inc.