Services | BCFS

Skills Development Symposium

Skills Development Symposium is hosted annually by the BC Federation of Students to bring student activists together to develop skills for the day-to-day operations of a students’ union. Participants will emerge from the Skills Development Symposium with a greater understanding of their role as elected student activists and the information and skills necessary to do their job effectively.

This year’s Symposium is May 31 to June 2, 2019 in Victoria.

We are excited to announce that there are over 130 participants registered for this year’s Symposium! This will be our largest one yet – what a great way to celebrate 35 years of hosting this skill-building event!

While most participants have requested a physical resource binder to use and to take back to their students’ union office, the documents are available digitally. Even if you aren’t able to attend the Symposium you will find the information in this file helpful as a students’ union director, volunteer, or staff!

You can download the resource binder contents here.

If you’re attending, get ready for engaging sessions, a campaign-oriented activity at the BC Legislature Building, and plenty of time to meet students’ union directors and staff from across the province!

BCFS BC Federation of Students -health and dental

BC Student Health Consortium

The BC Federation of students helps operate health and dental plans at campuses across British Columbia to ensure students have access to high quality and affordable health and dental coverage.

The Federation works with Green Shield Canada, Canada’s leading not-for-profit insurance provider to provide students coverage on prescription drugs, dental, paramedical services, vision care, among other things.

Want more information about your plan? Visit the participating student union’s websites:

Selkirk College Students’ Union
College of New Caledonia Students’ Union
Emily Carr Students’ Union
Okanagan College Students’ Union
Vancouver Island University Students’ Union
North Island Students’ Union
Students’ Union of Vancouver Community College

BCFS BC Federation of Students Student discount card

Student Discount Program

Being a student is expensive. Tuition fees never seem to stop increasing, rent is out of control, text book prices are outrageous… the list goes on and on.

To help make your day to day life a little more affordable, the Federation and its member students’ unions partner with local businesses to provide student discounts. For the 2018-19 academic year we’ve made the program even easier to access — just use your institution’s student ID! Look for a sticker on the door or window of participating businesses that says “show your student ID here”, and you’ll know they’re supporting students in your community!

DISCOUNTS IN YOUR REGION

Head to your students’ union to pick up a guide to discounts in your region! Or you can download your region’s guide here.

Discount Guide-Vancouver Discount Guide-Okanagan Discount Guide-North

Discount Guide-Vancouver Island Discount Guide-Kootenays

BCFS BC Federation of Students purchase network

Bulk Purchasing: Membership Outreach Materials

Sustainable Sweatshop-Free Swag

Using the collective purchasing power of our almost 200,000 members, the Federation can secure low-cost, but high quality sustainable and ethical promotional materials for student unions to give away to their members for free. Together, we have save student unions in BC thousands of dollars on their bulk-purchase giveaway items.

The Federation, and its member locals annually give out over 15,000 water bottles, 23,000 pens, 1,000 USBs, 1,500 notebooks free to our members. Want to grab some free BC Federation of Students’ swag? Visit your students’ union or send us an email!

Members’ Handbook and Dayplanner

Since the late 1990s, the BC Federation of Students has coordinated the Members’ Handbook and Dayplanner service, with the aim of improving the overall quality of student dayplanners and reducing the unit costs of handbooks, particularly for small member locals, through economies of scale.

The handbooks consist of a local-specific section, a section about the Federation, and a calendar and time management pages. The books are produced with full-colour pages, vegetable based-ink, and high quality paper. The Federation subscribes to high sustainability standards, and works with companies who do the same. For several years Mitchell Press has been the printing company for this service; if you’re interested in knowing more about their sustainability initiatives and practices, you can learn about them here.

Need a Members’ Handbook and Dayplanner? Visit your students’ union, or send us an email.

BCFS BC Federation of Students campus app

OOHLALA : Your Campus App!

The BC Federation of Students have partnered with OOHLALA mobile to produce a series of campus applications for our local students’ union. The app contains a campus wall, so you can communicate with your peers, campus information, clubs, events, campaign information, and student discounts. Everything you need to stay in the know on campus, and never miss a free food event ever again.

The application available in the app and google play store, and is free for members to download. Student Unions that are members of the Federation also get to provide the application for free. Find your application below!

University of British Columbia Students’ Union Okanagan
Selkirk College Students’ Union
College of New Caledonia Students’ Union
Douglas Students’ Union
Emily Carr Students’ Union
Okanagan College Students’ Union
Vancouver Island University Students’ Union
North Island Students’ Union
Students’ Union of Vancouver Community College
Camosun College Student Society
Northern British Columbia Graduate Student Society