Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Following up on my honourable friend from Nahendeh's questions, I'd just like to ask the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment: if there are students who don't want to leave the Northwest Territories to take training in in-demand jobs like social work and teacher education, what do we tell those students? Thank you.
Masi. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I mentioned in this House, we're not taking any intakes into this program until the foundational review is done. Then from there with the Skills 4 Success, with the labour market information needs and assessment that we also have, we will develop a strategic plan and the direction for the college moving forward, but right now I think it's important we get the foundational review done, and also provide these students with alternatives such as other colleges that we do have some of our northern students going to, such as Alberta, the Yukon, or even in Saskatchewan. It will give them some options. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
The question I spoke of was: what if kids want to stay here and do those degrees? The option is to make them leave the territory? That is kind of counterproductive to that questioning. The Minister just said that this is a foundational review, not a program review, and yet he is telling us now that he is frozen on these two programs. So which is it? Is it a foundational review or a program review? Because we have these programs that are currently unavailable to northern students who want to take training in these careers here in the Northwest Territories.
The Member is right. We've stopped intake into those two specific programs. As I've mentioned many times, I don't know how many times I have to mention it, but we are doing a foundational review. We have to make sure that that gets completed. In the meantime, when that foundational review is complete, as I stated yesterday with the management response, and I gave a timeline that we should have something at the 2018-2019 academic year moving forward, then we can use that foundational review, that management response, along with our Skills 4 Success document, and our labour market needs assessment, and move forward into a strategic plan for the college. That's the timeline, the direction that we're moving right now.
What other programs has the Minister halted intake on in the college currently since the foundational review started?
Well, just the two programs that were discussed that we brought up in this House over and over and over again and many times, so just the two programs.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'd like to ask the Minister: why were these two programs the only two programs that were affected by the foundational review? Thank you.
As I've said in this House before, it was the enrolment rates and graduation rates on that program. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
