A new program at Saskatchewan Polytechnic will teach Indigenous leadership skills to Indigenous and non-Indigenous people.
The online Indigenous Leadership Skills applied certificate was announced at the beginning of June.
The 240 hours of material utilizes case studies of successful Indigenous leaders as well as other methods to showcase Indigenous leadership techniques.
Paul Carter, the dean for the School of Continuing Education, said the course was designed with the help of knowledge-keepers and Indigenous leaders across Canada.
“We reached out and we talked to the knowledge-keepers, the chiefs, the Indigenous leaders that made massive changes in their community and we asked them, ‘how did you do that? What did you do? What was the mindset?’ so that our students and the future leaders in Indigenous communities could model some of those same activities,” Carter said.
The course is ‘open access’ meaning there aren’t any admission requirements.
However, Carter said, the course is designed for those already working.
“We accept all people to come into this program, but really, this is designed for people that have at least some work experience. They’ve been on the job site (and) have aspirations about becoming a leader in their organization or preparing themselves for their next career,” he said,
In addition to the program being open access, it is also fully online.
Carter said they chose to keep it open and online so that it’s accessible to everyone.
“The thing is that success doesn’t always find itself in the places where people think that it might be, so we don’t want to turn people away,” he said. “We want everybody that has a hope and a dream to be able to access this.”
(PHOTO: Saskatchewan Polytechnic logo. File photo.)