Non-subsidized Programs
NWC is committed to delivering industry training that is responsive to regional needs. With the significant decline in the regional and provincial economy, NWC has seen a corresponding decrease in industry training but there are signs of recovery post pandemic. The College continues to invest in online, just in time training to manage costs and ensure industry can obtain accredited workers when they are required. To ensure accessibility, NWC continues to offer faceto-face course offerings of a variety of industry safety programs routinely each month. In consultation with industry partners, NWC has been augmenting our industry credit offerings with additional, recognized safety tickets. The College delivers industry credit programs by certified trainers to ensure quality and meet industry standards. The robust menu of quality, industry credit training ensures accessibility, both geographically and timely, for employees to maintain or obtain certification required by employers. There are significant opportunities in the northwest for the College’s business development team. NWC hosts one-third of Saskatchewan’s First Nations communities within our boundaries. This provides great opportunity to train and support these communities to build capacity for sustainability and resiliency. First Nations communities own and operate business enterprises, operate health, social support centers and schools as well as manage their own community. This is in addition to the employment many seek off reserve. There are many opportunities for the College to support First Nation communities so they can create, produce and manage wealth to result in healthier individuals, families and communities. NWC business community is primarily small to medium enterprises across several industries – agriculture, forestry, manufacturing, oil and gas, tourism and sales/service. The opportunity to support these small enterprises to be robust is endless. The number of businesses that have been resilient during the pandemic is amazing. There is a great entrepreneurial spirit in this area but many of these entrepreneurs need training to support managing in a complex business world and staying competitive. Cost effective training (credentialed, non-credit or micro-credentialed) in areas such as human resource management, supervision/managerial skills, maximizing use of social media, digital/automation transformation, accounting and finance, supply chain management, insurance, and marketing. Incubator space to support connectivity, creativity and mentorship is another opportunity the College has to support current and budding entrepreneurs. Resilient, growing businesses supports rural sustainability. To support the larger businesses in those key industries, the focus should be on growth including extending to value added support opportunities and keeping up with the innovations and technology in manufacturing, oil and gas, energy and agriculture. Programming that focuses on sustainability and growth – food security, water/wastewater, value added processing/production to support export markets, automation/digitization, cybersecurity, project management, carbon emissions strategies, environmental sustainability, supply chain management and overall business processes that support expansion, innovation and diversification. Given the economic backbone of agriculture in the province there is limited training available and is an industry not well understood by youth. This Government’s new economic plan has placed a strong reliance on the agriculture industry to grow the overall economy. NWC is well situated to support training focused on globalization and export, automation, diversification, agri-food, water and food security, irrigation, meat processing, farm business management, environmental sustainability practices and agribusiness. These programs would support addressing many of the 30 goals for 2030 identified by the government.
NORTH WEST COLLEGE
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2021-24 BUSINESS PLAN
