VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) — The recently announced creation of 1000 technology education spaces across BC won’t be limited to students born and raised in this province.

The program’s also being offered to applicants from other provinces and countries.

Advanced Education Minister Andrew Wilkinson confirmed that after announcing 250 spots will soon be open at UBC‘s Robson Square campus in downtown Vancouver.

“We expect not only Canadians, but people from all over the world to be interested in coming to Canada. Our goal, of course, is to fund spaces for domestic students and if international students come, they pay a higher level of tuition, so they can fund, not only their own education, but they also help to create other spaces for domestic students.”

This latest announcement expands on something initially promised three weeks ago.

Wilkinson adds employment in BC’s tech sector topped 100,000 for the first time in 2015, so there’s room for growth.

“This will be part of an ongoing effort to grow international and domestic education in British Columbia.”

He also says the Robson Square expansion is long overdue because that campus is perfectly located near possible employers like the recently-opened Microsoft.

“The interesting thing about downtown Vancouver as a tech hub is that we’ve attracted major companies here. The big multi-nationals. We’ve also got a thriving start-up sector.”

This upgrade is not expected to affect the future of the popular Robson Square skating rink.