Agreements pave way for local training opportunities

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Members of Kawacatoose First Nation and Montreal Lake Cree Nation will soon have increased access to post-secondary studies thanks to agreements signed between the two communities and the Saskatchewan Institute of Applied Science and Technology (SIAST).

On June 6, an agreement was signed between SIAST and Kawacatoose First Nation that paves the way for the post-secondary institution to begin offering its practical nursing program at the Kawacatoose First Nation Training Facility in Quinton this fall. The program will be able to accommodate 18 students from Kawacatoose and other nearby First Nations. The clinical portion of the program will take place at hospitals and long-term care facilities in local communities, including Yorkton, Raymore and Wynyard and at the All Nations Healing Hospital in Fort Qu'Appelle.

On June 8, Montreal Lake Cree Nation and SIAST signed a memorandum of understanding, formalizing a partnership that will see the school's natural resources training program offered to Montreal Lake students at facilities in Candle Lake. Delivery of the natural resources core program will begin in September, with students working toward credits for the first year of the two-year diploma program. The second year will be completed at SIAST?s Prince Albert campus so students can have access to necessary equipment and lab space.

The goal of the agreements is to allow SIAST to partner with the two First Nation communities to help ensure their members have access to training that is appropriate, responsive to the needs of First Nations and available close to home, explained Claude Naud, SIAST's senior vice-president, academic. Formal agreements were established to provide all parties, especially potential students, with assurances about the future of the programs being offered.

"There's a bit more of a permanency when you have an agreement," Naud said. "I think it gives you a little more stability and predictability."

A partnership approach was chosen to ensure both SIAST and the community had ownership of and involvement in the program.

"We provide the expertise, the training material, program material. The First Nations will be providing the facilities, the support, obviously the community supports. And also it will be tailored and adapted to meet their environment. So I think it's a nice blend in terms of an approach that will sort of cater to both sides. So you have the rigor and sort of the quality of the program on one side, plus on the other side you have a very extensive knowledge of the community, but also the support that's there. So I hope this is a formula that's going to work very well," Naud said.

Both Kawacatoose and Montreal Lake have been trying to get training programs established close to home for a number of years, Naud said. With SIAST in the picture as a partner, those efforts are finally reaching fruition.

A group of Kawacatoose members who hope to be in the first class of the local practical nursing program attended the agreement signing in Kawacatoose, and they made an impact on Naud.

"I guess what's really impressive is to see the potential students that were present at the signing ceremony and then really the support of the entire community," he said. "You get the first generation of potential practical nurses right there," he said. "I was there at the ceremony and certainly, if you were not a believer before, you walked out being one."