School: Red River College Polytechnic
Location: Rural Manitoba
Credential: Certificate

First Nations youth, especially those living on reserves in rural and remote areas across the country, face significant financial and geographic barriers to education. In Manitoba, only 21 per cent of First Nations youth enrol in post-secondary education, one of the lowest rates in the country.

Red River College Polytechnic’s mobile-training labs help address this situation. Each lab is made up of two 53-foot trailers on wheels, with slide-out sides that can quickly open up into 1,000 square feet of training or storage space. The labs are big enough to train up to 12 students at a time but class sizes can be larger, as students rotate in and out of the lab as they work on projects.

Currently, Red River has two mobile training labs and is considering adding a third. To determine which academic programming and training would best serve the community’s needs, a regional campus manager from the school meets with an advisory committee made up of local leaders and residents of the community. Once the program is running, faculty maintain a connection with the community to ensure the training supports local needs and helps connect participants to jobs.

One of the labs moves back and forth between Peguis First Nation and Fisher River Cree Nation in the Interlake region of Manitoba. In early 2022, an intro to trades program was underway when major flooding occurred, forcing hundreds of community members out of their homes; many were unable to return due to mould, water damage and unstable foundations. Some students in the program took part in paid practicums during the summer to support community needs. Red River has since offered carpentry, plumbing and an electrical program to continue to help the community rebuild.

The second lab moves around to other communities in rural Manitoba. Last summer, in Shoal Lake 40 First Nation, which straddles the border of Manitoba and Ontario, students were trained in construction labour, piping and framing to support a local highway project that required skilled workers. This fall, the mobile lab will be stationed in Roseau River Anishinabe First Nation, where students will train to become health-care aides.

School: Thompson Rivers University
Location: Kamloops, British Columbia
Credential: Certificate and diploma

British Columbia had its most devastating wildfire season on record in 2023: 2.8 million hectares burned, more than double that of the previous record-setting year. Across the country, wildfires have displaced hundreds of thousands of people through evacuations, destroyed homes and had a significant effect on the health-care system. In 2024, the fires caused more than $8 million in insured damages alone.

The research underpinning current wildfire practice is, in some cases, decades old and lacks relevance to Canadian contexts. Guidelines designed to keep communities safe were originally based on standards from the National Fire Protection Association in the United States. Although they’ve been adapted over the years, they still lack Indigenous knowledge and wildfire-management practices, which are imperative to understanding and fighting blazes in Canada. Having up-to-date local research is especially important as the climate crisis creates more unpredictable weather events each year.

To improve the ability to forecast, prevent and respond to wildfires, Thompson Rivers University and the B.C. Wildfire Service launched the Centre for Wildfire, Research and Education in 2024 at the Thompson Rivers Kamloops campus. The centre’s goal is twofold: to produce more skilled personnel for immediate wildfire response, and to provide an academic space for ongoing research.

This fall, the first cohort of students will start their studies in one of........

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