News

Whitehorse – Mitch Miyagawa has an unusual job description: for the next year and a half, he’ll be tasked with building awareness about cultural diversity in the Whitehorse community and its institutions.

Miyagawa started work in February as the new co-ordinator of Yukon College’s “Yukon Cultures Connect” project. He’ll be organizing workshops and public events designed to break down barriers between cultural groups, create public dialogue about diversity, and improve how institutions respond to our changing demographics.

Yukon Cultures Connect is funded by a two-year multi-culturalism grant from Citizenship and Immigration Canada, and is driven by a unique and growing team of people from Whitehorse’s “intercultural hubs”: Kwanlin Dun First Nation, l’Association franco-yukonnaise, Canadian Filipino Association of the Yukon, the Yukon African-Caribbean Association, Japanese-Canadian Association of Yukon, Yukon Arts Centre, and the Multicultural Centre of the Yukon.

WHITEHORSE – The good work, accomplishments and growth of Yukon College staff and students are highlighted in a new ‘Report to the Community’ released today.

The 16-page report gives Yukoners a chance to catch up with stories about the College that may have not made the news last year. It’s also a chance to get a glimpse of the ‘big picture’ of how the College is doing.

“It’s an engaging, user-friendly way for people to really get a sense of where the College is today,” says Jacqueline Bedard, the director of College Relations and International. “This is a standard publication for post-secondary education institutions, reaching out to inform the public they serve.”

 Whitehorse – It’s just become a lot easier for students at Yukon College wishing to transfer to colleges and universities in Alberta.

The College has just been accepted into the Alberta Transfer System of the Alberta Council on Admissions and Transfer.

“This is a huge development in the life of the College,” says YC president Karen Barnes. “Admission into the ACAT system is a real feather in our cap.

“Students can come to Yukon College secure in the knowledge that many of the courses they take will be recognized by Alberta institutions.”

ACAT is essentially a system for educational institutions to work co-operatively for the benefit of students. It helps colleges and universities recognize courses taken by students when they want to transfer from one institution to another. Educational institutions develop agreements on transferring and admitting students, and determine what program courses or credits are accepted.

WHITEHORSE- A revolution is about to begin for adults who want to improve their education in the territory.

The announcement of new adult basic education funding by the federal government- $27 million over five years, distributed across the three northern territories- will allow for vastly expanded programs tailored to help hundreds of people better their lives and their job opportunities.

“We’re really excited about this,” says Shelagh Rowles, the acting Vice-President, Academic at Yukon College. “There has been pent-up demand for years. We are ready to explore how we deliver adult basic education and rethink how we support people who want to improve their education.”

The College will be receiving a portion of Ottawa’s new Northern Adult Basic Education Program funds- announced this morning by Prime Minister Stephen Harper in Iqaluit- to launch new upgrading programs across the territory.

WHITEHORSE– Yukon College is pleased to announce that the first phase of the feasibility study to establish the Centre for Northern Innovation in Mining (CNIM) is complete and demonstrates a significant need for Yukon-based mine training, education and research.

“Phase One reveals that over the next 10 years, the Yukon’s three producing mines alone will need to hire approximately 1,690 workers to simply maintain the current level of employment,” said Yukon College President and CNIM Chair Karen Barnes. “These figures don’t include the new positions that will need to be filled or the hiring requirements of the exploration industry and mining’s associated construction, environmental and service and supply sectors.”

WHITEHORSE—The Department of Education will provide $1.86 million to extend the Licensed Practical Nurse program at Yukon College to 2016.

“The continuation of the Licensed Practical Nurse program will allow two more intakes of up to 15 practical nurse students per class to graduate and find work in Yukon,” Education Minister Scott Kent said. “An evaluation completed last fall recommended the program be extended and we are happy to make this announcement today.”

The decision to extend the Licensed Practical Nurse program was made to meet labour market needs identified by the Department of Health and Social Services. The program fulfills a demonstrated need for licensed practical nurses in the territory, and with a growing population, it is anticipated that this need will continue for the foreseeable future.

WHITEHORSE – Amy Andison is a typical Yukon College student- she’s happy learning here.

“I love it, this gives you a place to learn and get a good quality education close to home,” says the second-year Business program student.

Andison’s feelings are shared by a vast majority of Yukon College students. A recent survey of 340 of the College’s 597 full-time and 519 part-time students in credit programs showed 96 per cent would agree with the phrase that “This is a good learning environment.”

There’s also nearly unanimous agreement that “Yukon College is a good place for people like me”, with 95 per cent saying they “agree” or “strongly agree” with the statement.

Results of the survey, conducted in November, were released today by the College.

“It’s awesome,” says the Director of Student Services, Colleen Wirth, of the survey’s findings. “It shows the College’s hard work in meeting the needs of its students is paying off.”

WHITEHORSE—They say great minds think alike. Later this month, the Cold Climate Innovation Centre (CCIC) at Yukon College is hoping that they’ll think together.

The CCIC is holding an ‘Innovation Think Tank’ on January 23 at 7 p.m. at the Westmark Hotel. They’re hoping where brains meet brains, great things can come about.

“It’s basically an idea lab,” says Rick Steele, one of the organizers. “We want to hear from people who want to bounce their ideas off other people.”

The CCIC is holding a two-day ‘Research Innovation and Commercialization’ workshop January 23-24, and the think tank is a highlight of the program.

It’s a chance for people with good ideas to come and share them with like-minded inventors, dreamers, and innovators. Participants will be asked to talk about their ideas with others- without fear or favour.

Whitehorse-  The Board of Governors of Yukon College is pleased to announce Paul Flaherty has been named interim Chair of the Board.

Flaherty is President and Chief Executive Officer of Northwestel, based in Whitehorse. He replaces Clarence Timmons, who stepped down from the position of Board Chair in December.

“I have been Board Chair for five years, and a College Governor for eight,” says Timmons. “With a new College president in place, it’s a good time to have a new start all around.”

“It has been an honour and privilege serving as Chair of the Board, and I’ll miss it,” he added. “But it is gratifying to know I’ll be leaving the position in Paul’s capable hands.”

Whitehorse –You may know how much fuel your furnace burns in a month- or how much you spend on gas for your car. Now imagine scaling that up to include all the energy used and emissions created by every person, home, business, and vehicle in your community.

That’s the job facing researchers at Yukon Research Centre (YRC) and the Kluane First Nation (KFN) in southwest Yukon.

“It’s actually a lot more complex than the home energy audit most people are used to hearing about,” says Lisa Christensen, the researcher with YRC. “That’s why we call it an ‘energy use and emissions inventory’.”

Whitehorse – A small Yukon software company is bringing its novel product to the world, thanks to support from the Yukon Research Centre.

Subvert (http://www.subvert.ca) is just a small operation- two guys working out of an office in downtown Whitehorse doing software development. But sharing information between them could be a pain at times.

“We’d need to share files, send messages to one another, or links, or snippets of text,” says Geof Harries. “But email was onerous, Skype was overkill- there was no other simple way to send these small things.”

If only there was some simple way to “flick” these snippets of information to one another, they thought. And out of that idea, Flik was born.

Whitehorse –   Students of Yukon College and University of Saskatchewan (USask) will have more access to programs, research and facilities of both institutions as a result of a new agreement between the College and University.

A memorandum of understanding between USask and YC is being signed today by College President Karen Barnes and Peter MacKinnon, president of the Saskatoon-based University.

“This is really a foundation for further collaborative participation that will broaden opportunities for our students, as well as University of Saskatchewan students,” says Shelagh Rowles, the acting vice-president of Education and Training at the College. “It really is creating a ‘two-way street’ for students.”

The MOU states the college and university will look for “appropriate collaborations across the spectrum of their missions”.