A new school year is underway for University College of the North (UCN), and with the new year comes plans to overhaul some of the school’s programming.
Doug Lauvstad, president and vice-chancellor for UCN, spoke to members of the Flin Flon and District Chamber of Commerce last month, sharing a new vision for the future of the institution that will involve creating several new programs and classes.
“We’re going to be going through, in the next month or so, a major sort of restructuring,” said Lauvstad.
“Our focus will be looking outward to the needs of students and employers.”
New programs will include power engineering studies, network communication training, northern tourism and hospitality management and a primary care paramedic program currently only offered in The Pas. A public sector administration program will be included.
“There are 14,000 people working in the public sector in northern Manitoba and we didn’t have a public sector administration program,” said Lauvstad.
The new courses, along with UCN’s continued work with the Northern Manitoba Mining Academy in Flin Flon, are geared toward aiding areas of development throughout the north.
Lauvstad said education needs to be considered one of the key drivers for growing northern Manitoba’s economy.
“I really want UCN to be that place in the north, the go-to place where people can come and revitalize the north, where the business community can feel that they can access the resources and expertise that’s there,” he said.
To help northern residents get involved with these programs, Lauvstad also mentioned that UCN will work with existing educational centres, like schools, adult learning centres and workplaces, to align its programs so previous training can be used as prerequisite education for some courses.
“We need to revitalize our adult learning so we can get students the credentials they need to get into post-secondary. It’s just not enough to get them into the door – they have to succeed,” he said.
Co-op programs and work placements with northern companies will also be a priority for UCN, with Lauvstad adding work experience in a student’s chosen field is a critical part of education development.
“We need to do more co-ops, more internships, more apprenticeships, more programs where the employers are involved with the education system so that our students can go to UCN for four months, then work for four weeks, then back to UCN – they’re getting real hands-on, practical skills,” he said.
“Apprenticeship has been around for a thousand years because it works. We need to get ourselves grounded in meeting the needs of our employers.”
About 2,300 students attend classes throughout UCN’s two main campuses in The Pas and Thompson and 12 regional centres, including a centre in Flin Flon. In total, 1,500 people access college-level technical courses, while 800 are enrolled in university-level classes. About 70 per cent of the school’s overall student body is indigenous.
Lauvstad discussed indigenization as a key concept to for growing UCN over the next few years.
“For a northern or indigenous student coming into our buildings, they should feel at home and comfortable. The curriculum should feel familiar and should resonate with students,” he said.
In recent years, UCN has been subject to seven reviews, both internal and external, to determine what can be improved with the school’s courses.
“No one could ever accuse us of not being consultative enough,” Lauvstad said.
“All seven reviews said very much the same thing –we need to focus on getting more students, more success and graduates, more employment after graduation. We need to up our program enrolments, our retention.”
The school has seen recent changes to its executive group, including the appointment of Flin Flon’s Becky Cianflone to the school’s governing council.
“In the last year and a half, we’ve had new governance, a new minister, new senior officials. We’ve got a new governing council,” said Lauvstad.
