Adult Learner Awards

Since 2002, we have awarded over $186,250 to adults who have gone back to school.

Updated January 2025

Bursary Program

Each year, we award $750 bursaries to adults who are working toward a grade 12 certificate or grade 12 equivalency (GED). This year, we are awarded 14 bursaries sponsored by the Rotary Literacy Foundation, Canadian Tire Charlottetown and our generous donors.

To qualify for a bursary, you must:

Have not completed grade 12 or GED or CAEC
Have not been in public school for at least 3 years
Has not received a bursary from us within the past three years
Be enrolled in College, Technical or Trade school or private training between January 1 and December 31, 2025

Applications for bursaries are now closed and will open again in December 2025.

Scholarship Program

We also award $1500 scholarships to adults who have completed their GED and are enrolled at Holland College working toward a diploma or degree.

To qualify for a scholarship, you must:

Have completed your GED
Be enrolled full-time at Holland College working toward a diploma or degree.

Scholarships are administered by
the Holland College Foundation.

“Making the decision to return to school has been one of the most rewarding and gratifying experiences of my life.”

Agnes MacDonald winner of the PEI Literacy Alliance Adult Bursary

“Now that I am finished and graduation is upon me this week, I can’t begin to explain the way I feel. Excited, grateful, emotional, confident all rolled up into one. It’s just an amazing feeling, and I never expected it. I would recommend returning to school to anyone, at any age. Remember: ‘better late than never.'”

AnnaMarie Drake

“I decided I wanted to better myself and further my education. I was scared. I didn’t think I was smart enough to do it. Then a good friend said to me, ‘Norma, you are smart and very capable of getting your GED. You deserve it.’ My partner has also been very supportive of my decision to go back to school. ‘The only way one fails at something at something is when you don’t try,’ he said. So, with those things in mind and the encouragement of my friends and family, I enrolled at Holland College.”

Norma Stac is a winner of a PEI Literacy Alliance Adult Bursary