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Native Early Childhood Education Diploma Program

Starting in September 2005

In partnership with Cambrian College

The NECEP is a two-year, four semester preogram that provides a comprehensive and culturally relevant education experience.

Students will:

• travel to Thunder Bay to participate in two-2-week on-campus sessions per semester
• earn their ECE certification for employment in licensed child care settings.
• develop knowledge and skills to orgainize and maintain a safte, stimulating learning environment to ensure the child's total development.

Graduates may be eligible for advanced standings when entering other diploma or degree programs.  The doduclar delivery provides students with the flexibility of learning a NECE diploma while remaining employed in their home community.  Oshki-Pimache-O-Win provides students with support services to help ensure studnet success.

Enroll Now!!

For further information contact:

Joan Hardy, Program Coordinator, Phone: 1-807-346-2784, Fax: 1-807-345-2924, email: jhardy@oshki.ca.

or

Oshki-Pimache-O-Win Eduation and Training Institute, 107 Johnson Avenue, Thunder Bay, Ontario, P7B 2V9, Phone: 1-807-346-2770, Fax: 1-807-345-2924, email: info@oshki.ca

A+ Certification is a vendor neutral testing program that certifies the competency of entry-level computer service technicians.  The program is administered by Comp TIA and backed by over 50 major computer hardware and software vendors, distributors, resellers and publications.  Upon successful completion, the student will be ready to take the A+ Core Hardware Service Technician and A+ Operation System Technologies examinations in order to receive their A+ Certification.

SPECIAL ALL-INCLUSIVE PACKAGE

We know that it can be very expensive for for a community to send students to programs in Thunder Bay.  We want to make it as easy and inexpensive as possbile while providing optimal support to ensure that students complete the program successfully.  So we've arranged a speical all-inclusive program for students who have to travel into Thunder Bay to take the Computer Mechanic Program.  PLUS - send two and e'll reduce the tuition cost!  We will arrange for and cordinate:

•  Accommodation at the Landmark Inn in Thunder Bay.
• Breakfast and dinner daily at the Landmark Inn.
• Lunch at Oshki as part of the Computer Mechanic Program.
• Transportation to and from classes daily.
• A weekly payment of $ 75 to the student for incidentals.

STARTS SEPTEMBER 12TH! 

The Computer Mechanic Program is a 10 week full-time program held at the Oshki-Pimache-O-Win at 107 Johnson Avenue, 2nd Floor, Thunder Bay, Ontario.

Enroll Now!!

For further information:

Jacqueline Garwood, Program Coordinator at 1807-346-2779  or fax at 1807-345-2924 or her e-mail at jgarwood@oshki.ca

INAC recently released a powerpoint presentation detailing their policy directions concerning Aboriginal education. It is an interesting document and direction that will have a direct impact First Nation schools across the country. Providing for off-reserve K-12 programming and establishing "school board type" second level services are two parts of their strategic plan that will have a dramatic impact in terms of structure and available resources for on-reserve schools. Below are the contents from three of the slides in the presentation. Click here for the entire presentation ....

From Slide 10: Strategic Policy Directions

As a crucial first step, INAC proposes to pursue the transformation of Aboriginal education by focusing on five key elements at the K-12 level:

• Educational Jurisdiction
• Regional First Nation Education Systems
• School Innovation
• Strategic Performance and Reporting Measures
• Off Reserve K-12 Initiatives

From Slide 13: Current National Context:

• In the provinces, school boards serve an integral second-level (i.e. above school level) support function within successful education systems.
• In the absence of such support for on-reserve schools, First Nations have taken the initiative to create regional school board-type entities in recent years.
• However, these organizations have different levels of capacity or are non-existent in some parts of Canada.
• Furthermore, these organizations are in the developmental stages and currently lack the stable and multi-year funding provided to their counterparts in provincial systems.

From Slide 14: Proposed Policy Direction:

• Provide investments to build on the existing efforts of First Nation second-level service organizations.
• First Nation schools would be able to draw on a range of school board-type services and benefit from economies of scale.
• Long-term goal could be to have complete geographic coverage by these regional systems across Canada.

As a result of our June 21 roundtable (click here to Knews story about this meeting), The Star is launching a public on-line discussion of aboriginal education. I'll be writing a story about it in the next few days, but you all get a sneak peak. It's up and running, and I'd encourage anyone who is interested to post a comment. There is a section for thoughts on the broader issue, and another for requests for specific items and services - and offers of the same, under "help wanted/help offered." Here's the link. http://thestar.blogs.com/nativeforum 

We also have launched a native education page with articles dealing with the issue. http://www.thestar.com/native. This link also provides a link to the Fort Severn story shared with the group on June 21 by grade 8 student Florence Thomas (click here to read her story).

If you have copies of remarks you made that day, feel free to post them on the forum, or, if they're really long, email them to me and we can post them on the web page. Feel free to suggest a link for the native education page. 

We're also talking with Ryerson University about the best way to privately continue the discussion that began at our roundtable. We'll keep you posted on that in the days to come.

Louise Brown
Education Reporter
Toronto Star

From the website: This website has been developed to provide Canadians with information and documentation resulting from the Canada-Aboriginal Peoples Roundtable and related follow-up activities to this historic event. The Canada-Aboriginal Peoples Roundtable held in Ottawa on April 19th, 2004 represented an unprecedented opportunity for members of the Federal Cabinet, Senate and House of Commons to engage with Aboriginal leaders from across the country. At the April 19th Roundtable, the Prime Minister made four key commitments: A Report on the Roundtable: Strengthening the Relationship, Canada-Aboriginal Peoples Roundtable which was released on May 20th , 2004. Sectoral discussions in six priority areas with Aboriginal groups, Provincial and Territorial governments, sectoral experts and practitioners; A Policy Retreat with members of the Cabinet Committee on Aboriginal Affairs (CCAA) Aboriginal leaders and; The development of an Aboriginal Report Card to track progress. As follow-up to the second commitment, a series of sectoral follow-up sessions has been held; these sessions included Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal experts from across the country. Sectoral session themes were: Health, Life Long Learning, Housing, Economic Opportunities, Negotiations and Accountability for Results. These sectoral follow-up sessions have been guided by a Planning Committee consisting of representatives from lead federal departments (Indian and Northern Affairs Canada, Health Canada, Industry Canada, Canada Mortgage and Housing, Treasury Board Secretariat); National Aboriginal Organizations:(Assembly of First Nations (AFN), Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami (ITK), Métis National Council (MNC), Congress of Aboriginal Peoples (CAP) and the Native Women`s Association of Canada (NWAC)); and a number of provincial and territorial governments which worked in a collaborative partnership to develop and implement each session. Important background papers developed by members of the Planning Committee in advance of the sessions, as well as independent facilitators reports on each session as well as a final report prepared by a team of session facilitators are all available electronically on this site. Members of the Planning Committee may have also drafted outcome statements and reports stemming from this process, these additional materials along with outcomes of related forums and discussions that were not designated as sectoral follow-up themes (e.g. the Environment) can be easily found by linking through the What’s New section. Documentation from these sectoral follow-up sessions may be used to help inform the future development of Aboriginal policy in Canada and will be important documents for consideration at upcoming meetings between governments and Aboriginal leaders including a Policy Retreat in the Spring of 2005 and a First Ministers Meeting with Aboriginal leaders on Aboriginal issues planned for the Fall, 2005. The documentation contained on this website does not necessarily represent the views of any government or National Aboriginal Organization. The purpose of this website is to share information related to the Canada-Aboriginal Peoples Roundtable: background papers, Facilitator's sectoral and final reports, agendas and media announcements.

There is still time to get your applications in for Oshki's Native Early Childhood Education Program that starts in September 2005. Make sure you secure your seat today. 

A new five year Bachelor of Education is being developed for those people who want to become teachers working with First Nation students. The official signing of the partnership agreement to develop this new program took place this past March (click here to view the pictures of the negotiations and the signing).

The Sioux Lookout District Native Teacher Education Program (NTEP) management committee has been working on developing a culturally sensitive teaching program for the past few years. This committee consists of representatives from Shibogama, Windigo, IFNA, Keewaytinook Okimakanak, Sandy Lake and the Northern Nishnawbe Education Council. The Sioux Lookout district chiefs' approved the development and design of this new teacher degree program, in assembly.

Members of the consortium include Brock, Nippissing, and Lakehead universities which have signed an agreement-in-principle with Northern Nishnawbe Education Council to work together to create this new bachelor of education program. Click here to read the April 7 Wawatay story about this event.

Educational Puppet-play over video-conference!

Access Suicide Intervention & Prevention training in your community by video-conference or by audio connection.