CANADA: Academics train Inuit territory bureaucrats

Canada's most northerly territory, Nunavut, will have access to an advanced business management diploma programme operated by the Sobey School of Business at Saint Mary's University in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

The Nunavut Advanced Management Diploma (NAMD) programme will be offered in Rankin Inlet, a community of 2,358 people that serves as a business and transportation hub for central Nunavut, 85% of whose 29,000 population are aboriginal Inuit. Following the success of the same programme offered in the territory's capital, Iqaluit, from 2001-2006 with 75 graduates, officials saw an opportunity for residents of Rankin Inlet as well, which is regarded as Nunavut's second-most important community.

Designed for government employees to develop knowledge and skills important to their jobs without having to travel the long distances, the initiative will be an important source of knowledge in an isolated region.

The diploma programme consists of 10 three-day modules staged in Rankin Inlet by St Mary's academics that focus on business communication, strategic planning, leadership, programme evaluation, human resource management, project planning and management, planning and budgeting, marketing, community economic development and management skills.

Professors from Sobey will fly to the Arctic town for days at a time to teach specific modules to the students in Rankin, with personnel varying according to the module. Students completing any eight modules receive a diploma.

"This pilot in Rankin Inlet has been a long time coming," said Sheyla Kolola, director of training and development in Nunavut's Department of Human Resources. "Government of Nunavut employees in that region will be very fortunate to be able to attend a programme that can advance their management skills in their current or future jobs."

Rankin Inlet is located on the north western edge of the Hudson Bay, far from Iqaluit on the eastern edge of Baffin Island.

"The remoteness and small population of Nunavut makes access to education very difficult," said David Wicks, Dean of the Sobey School of Business. "Offering a programme that participants can complete while they work and not leave Nunavut makes the NAMD unique."

monica.dobie@uw-news.com