Carleton’s Faculty of Public Affairs (FPA) is piloting a new college program in partnership with Nunavut Sivuniksavut (NS), an Ottawa-based Inuit youth college, in an effort to increase Inuit involvement in Nunavut’s public service sector.
According to FPA dean André Plourde, the program currently functions as a two-year college degree, including alternating semesters between paid internship placements in the public service sector—arranged through NS—and courses at Carleton.
Plourde added that the academic component of the program is not new:it was previously active at Carleton, but was discontinued due to lack of funding in 2008.
“This year, [NS] approached us again to revive that arrangement as a pilot project, but now it’s a different program, [because] they are providing internship opportunities for the students in various government departments,” he said.
The program is being funded for qualifying students through the Makigiaqta Inuit Training Corporation and the Financial Assistance for Nunavut Students—a territorial funding program.
Murray Angus, the founder of NS, said he has been working on the development of the program since May 2017.
Angus said the primary focus of the program is to introduce Inuit students to higher education, in the hopes that it will steer them towards Nunavut’s public service sector.
“The academic component is going to be complemented with work placements in federal government offices to give students hands-on experience, and practical exposure to the actual career of possibilities for themselves,” he said.
According to Statistics Canada, Nunavut’s Inuit population represents 84 per cent of the territory’s total population. But, as of June 2018, the Government of Nunavut’s website states that Inuit represent less than 50 per cent of the public sector’s employees.
Angus said this program aims to combat the need for Inuit representation in the public sector.
“[Our] goal is to have a public service that reflects those proportions,” he said.
Angus added that the Inuit population percentage is much lower in management and executive positions, and higher in lower levels of employment, because lower-level positions require “less formal education.”
“There are a lot of jobs waiting to be filled, but people need higher levels of education for those senior positions,” he added.
Carleton’s main goal, Plourde said, is to see whether this program is a model that can be sustained and see further growth in the future.
“For us, it’s something that we’ve done before and [that] has been quite successful . . . we’re really thrilled to be reigniting this partnership and hope that the collaboration will be renewed,” Plourde said.
But, Angus said Carleton was not the only institution that NS considered for this program.
“We did look at other options for post-secondary institutions,” he said. “But we came back to Carleton, because it already has a certificate program on the books, and it’s here in Ottawa, which allows for the working [internships].”
Six students were selected through an application process with NS, Angus said. He added that they will be living independently in Ottawa during the course of the program, and they will earn government-paid salaries during their internships and placements.
Graduates of the program will receive a certificate in Nunavut public service studies, and may choose to use their credits towards a Bachelor of Arts degree at Carleton.
The program will begin later in August.
Photo by Aaron Hemens
