International teachers visit Red Deer Polytechnic

Red Deer Polytechnic recently welcomed training program representatives from the Caribbean and Kenya to see what post-secondary education has to offer for potential partnership opportunities.

Representatives from Belize, Dominica, Grenada, St. Lucia, Jamaica, Guyana and Kenya visited RDP on April 26, who were in Calgary for the annual conference of the Colleges and Institutes Canada, held on April 29 and May 1.

Participants attended post-secondary schools in Alberta and British Columbia during their stay.

Chad Flinn, associate vice president of academics for RDP, said it was an opportunity to build relationships and find out if there are ways RDP can help them, and how they can help RDP.

“It’s definitely a two-way relationship. It’s not just them coming to us. We learn a lot from them too,” Flinn said.

He said the RDP guests were particularly interested in Colleges and Institutes’ Skills to Access the Green Economy initiative, which leverages the expertise of Canadian post-secondaries to help institutions in Caribbean countries develop gender-sensitive training programs that meet their economic and environmental needs.

Sustainability is something that the RDP takes very seriously and embraces UNESCO’s Sustainable Development Goals, he added.

“RDP has been working on a project to green the profession. We have developed faculty training modules to teach teachers why it is important to educate our students, our mentees, about green initiatives and climate action.”

He said one of the delegates was very interested in how this training could be applied to waste management training.

Flinn said RDP has a lot to offer, and it is exciting to collaborate on an international level.

“As a college this means for many people that they have to just focus on crafts and technology, but that is not the case. It focuses on industry. The arts and humanities are very much industries and it is something we also focus on RDP stands out as a leader in Alberta’s colleges.”

He said Alberta’s post-secondary sector also works well together. People may think there is a lot of competition, but there is actually a lot of teamwork.