A new education initiative that offers far-flung First Nations communities an education in information technology will help aboriginal peoples get a technological leg up, as well as provide Canada's economy with much-needed skilled labour, the program's proponents say.
The Cisco Systems Net-working Academy, along with First Nations groups across Canada and the federal government, recently launched a First Nations Distance Learning Program that incorporates a blend of educational methodologies including in-classroom, instructor-led and online learning.
This, participants say, will allow First Nations instructors and students to gain the necessary information technology skills essential in today's economy, and do it in a way that better fits the aboriginal way of life.
The academy is run by the Toronto-based IT firm Cisco Systems Canada Co., the Canadian arm of U.S. giant Cisco Systems.
Aaron Hardy, a program instructor with K-Net - a network established by the northwest Ontario's Keewaytinook Okimakanak indigenous communities - says how the curriculum is delivered to aboriginal students is as important as the content.
"We've tried to customize the lessons to accommodate the variety of learners," Hardy says. "Traditionally, the native people are auditory learners - passing on legends and teachings from the elders - so in our lessons we try to use a (web conferencing program) to deliver a blend of written, verbal, video and hands-on components."
The distance-education program, which is based on Cisco's HP IT Essentials curriculum, lets students interact with instructors via the Internet using web-based video, audio and text conferencing. All materials are posted on the web and students work together with instructors over the Internet, which means instructors can follow the students' progress regardless of where they are.
"We use it mostly for adult students and people who don't quite fit into a regular high school," says Ula Shirt, an instructor with the Sunchild Cyber School. "It works really well because some of them work or have kids and they can't come to school during the day, so they come in the evening and complete their courses."
Sunchild is an Alberta-based online high school offering classes for Grades 9 to 12 - expanding to 7 to 12 starting in the fall - to First Nations communities in Alberta, northeast British Columbia and the Northwest Territories.
The program also provides students with training to become qualified academy instructors within their communities in order to reach an even greater student base.
Students learn how to build a computer, install and run operating systems and gain an understanding of local area networks, something that is vital for the program to succeed, says Martin Sacher, CEO at Sunchild.
"In many of the communities they don't understand technology the way they should - that it's not really a big deal if something goes wrong," Sacher says. "It's great that the technology allows you to push buttons to make it work, but when it doesn't work there has to be someone there to fix it."
Anne Miller, Canadian education marketing manager for Cisco, says the Cisco academy - which began in northern California a decade ago and is now operating in 150 countries - aims to expand aboriginal peoples "educational horizons" while working to realize their career goals.
She says that while her company generally hires techs and engineers with several years of experience, aboriginal graduates will have opportunities to hire on with those who buy or sell Cisco products.
"The students coming out of the academy program ... are actually getting hired by our customers and resellers (of Cisco products). So there's a great reputation that those students have because they're actually able to hit the ground running with x-number of hours on state-of-the-art equipment."
Randy Johns, general manager for Saskatchewan's Keewatin Career Development Corp., the lead aboriginal organization for the project in Canada, says the model of an industry-First Nations partnership can be very effective.
"This is really what we want to see in terms of the First Nations labour force being able to be engaged in Canada," he says. "And I think this partnership with industry is really key to this, because it allows the First Nations people to participate fully in the Canadian economy and it can help the Canadian industry develop a workforce.
"The exciting thing is that information technologies can open up more learning opportunities for First Nations people in these rural and remote sites. We're really trying to use the technology to create more learning technologies ... and the Cisco/First Nations program is one of the ways we're doing that."
Johns says the next year will see the program certify more instructors to make them available in more First Nations communities. Industry partnerships with aboriginal communities are nothing new. In Sunchild's case, Alberta and B.C. communities partner with companies to purchase courses from the cyberschool.
"We really didn't want the corporations to pick up 100 per cent of the costs, because the communities have to take ownership of the education," says Sacher.
Among the companies involved with Sunchild are Nexen Energy, Syncrude, Shell Canada, Suncor Energy, Burlington Resources, Conoco Phillips and TransCanada Corp.
(John Ludwick can be reached at ludwick@businessedge.ca)
