Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions today are for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment and they are with regard to the recent announced closing of Aurora College's Teacher Education Program and the social work program. I'm wondering: how does the Minister in fact see the department meeting the goals of Skills 4 Success and the requirements of our mandate in the absence of these programs? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The department will be continuing to work with the college and other post-secondary partners to ensure that program is better aligned with the needs of the labour markets. We're also reviewing the Student Financial Assistance program to see how it might be used to incent and encourage NWT residents to pursue post-secondary education that is aligned with in-demand occupations and the needs of the labour market.
The Skills 4 Success document is also being used in high schools, and we sent it to all the schools across the Northwest Territories so that information can be shared with future post-secondary students. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you to the Minister for his reply, and he may have partially answered my next question. How is the Department of Education, Culture and Employment working with the current and prospective students to address their concerns and support their educational and professional needs? Mr. Speaker, we recently know that some students wrote to us with these concerns, and so I'm wondering how the department will work with them specifically to support their needs.
I mentioned a little bit of this yesterday, as well. The current students of these programs will be given the opportunity to complete their program at Aurora College, but there will be no new intakes, as was mentioned. Former students will also be given the opportunity to complete these programs. Aurora College staff are providing students with the support staff they need to ensure that they have the best chances for successful completion of the program that they're in. Potential future students, as I mentioned yesterday, we are meeting with our access program students to help them align with the best career path moving forward with them as well.
Again, thank you to the Minister for his reply. Mr. Speaker, I'd like to know: how is the Department of Education, Culture and Employment growing and enhancing post-secondary options in the North, particularly if these two programs are to be eliminated?
We're expanding opportunities for post-secondary education that includes other institutions such as Dechinta Centre for Research and Learning, as well as College nordique, and some of these will be addressed as government looks at developing a new overarching legislation for post-secondary education in the Northwest Territories.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, lastly I'm wondering: can the Minister make a commitment to provide the figures on historical enrollment and graduation for these two programs? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, we can commit to getting that information for the Member and all Members on the other side of the House. I just want to let the Members know that we also have approximately 33 NWT students attending teacher education programs outside the Northwest Territories, and we continue to support them through our Student Financial Assistance program; 13 are coming from communities outside Yellowknife, so we're getting students from the communities outside Yellowknife attending this. Additionally, there are approximately 19 NWT students presently attending social work programs outside of the NWT and eight coming from communities outside Yellowknife.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Deh Cho.
