A new college is opening in Metro Vancouver, but it’s catering to a very specific type of student.

The Langley Animal Protection Society (LAPS) is launching what it is describing as Canada’s first National Kitten College.

It’s to help train people on how to better deal with neonatal and orphaned kittens.

Without their mothers, newborn kittens are extremely vulnerable and depend entirely on caregivers for warmth, nutrition, hygiene and monitoring.

“The goal for us at LAPS and for the other groups that were here is to grow our foster programmes and make them more robust so that the different levels of kittens that come in with different needs always have a place to go and it is not just staff taking them home, because I can tell you I have a litter of kittens in my basement and I’m often up at two in the morning taking care of them just like the rest of my amazing team,” Sarah Jones with LAPS said.

“So the ultimate is to recruit people, take the fear out of it and help the public be able to help us.”

The sessions are free with more courses planned for the future.