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Experience takes the helm

Darrell Greer
Northern News Services
Published Wednesday, March 28, 2012

RANKIN INLET
The search for a new head of Nunavut Arctic College (NAC) ended where it began when interim president Mike Shouldice of Rankin Inlet was named to the position earlier this month.

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Mike Shouldice of Rankin Inlet was announced as the new president of Nunavut Arctic College earlier this month. - Darrell Greer/NNSL photo

Shouldice, who's been with the college since shortly after its beginnings in 1986, had been interim president for nine months.

He began his career with the college teaching at the Arviat Adult Centre.

Assets were being built for the college when Shouldice began with the institution, and he moved to Rankin in an administrative capacity shortly after the Arctic College regional campus was established there in 1988.

Shouldice said the job's been the same for years, but the title changed and expanded, which led to him becoming a campus director.

He said then came program responsibility and another title change to dean of the Kivalliq campus about three years ago.

"That change took the administrative responsibility for the region and added program responsibility at the Nunavut level," said Shouldice.

"I became aware our former president, Daniel Vandermeulen, was leaving this past summer.

"I was asked to be interim while they searched for a new president and the new president turned out to be me.

"I guess they felt I was doing a good job, but sometimes it's just lucky how these things turn out."

Shouldice said the college grew out of the Northern job market.

He said in its early days, program funding came from government departments such as recreational training through Municipal and Community Affairs.

"The major employment areas in the North at the time were things like administrators, nurses, teachers and social workers.

"College programming then was adult basic education, management studies and a variety of things that linked to the government or major community jobs.

"During the past 25 years, that's really expanded to take in a lot of the trades.

"So we've really grown from that stream of major jobs into a variety of training and educational programming now."

Shouldice said program growth happened when the college went beyond the diploma level, which has led to degree transferability in areas such as teacher education and nursing.

He said one of the biggest changes for NAC is that everything is laddered now, with one thing leading to another and then to accreditation.

"We're trying not to offer programs that don't have some kind of transferability, or the ability for someone to build on their credits and transfer it to someone else.

"Our facilities have also improved greatly during the past decade.

"We were able to make some real leaps and bounds when the Government of Nunavut generously supplied a trades training centre and residence in three locations.

"Our infrastructure has changed with support for the knowledge-infrastructure network with fibre optics and new computer systems in all of our adult centres, and, with adult educators in all of our communities, we're delivering more and more at the community level."

Shouldice said years ago, the average student used to be age 29 with two kids and a Grade 9 education.

He said he used to ask if it was a reasonable expectation for them to be working professionals in Nunavut.

"That's always described my job description because it is reasonable.

"Our system is built around that.

"We still have committed students with families coming back to school, but we see more and more younger students straight out of Grade 12 who have a whole different set of priorities."

Shouldice said the younger students have always had e-mail and a computer on their desk.

He said they have a whole different outlook on the world and different expectations of performance.

"Our students want to know what they hold from the college's diploma level is as good as it gets anywhere else in the country, and it is.

"This college has always played a pivotal leadership role.

"If we had no Arctic College we'd have a totally different workforce here, so the time and investment has been well worth it."

Shouldice said he expects to face a huge learning curve, despite his experience.

He said his strengths revolve around having lived in the North for a long time, having a number of projects and contacts, and being familiar with communities.

"I have a good handle on the real impact of an educational service that puts people into the job market.

"The growth area for me will be the articulation into the political end of the job, with the accountability to the government for the expenditure of public money.

"If my right hand is the college and my left is the deputy-head's responsibilities, then my left hand is a little weaker than my right."

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