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Castlegar's Selkirk College put the call out for the micro-credential course development.

Not only is the city getting behind a Selkirk College initiative for a micro-credential call for proposals from the province, it has offered itself as a partner in a pilot project to deliver the program.

Castlegar city council approved a letter of support for the college’s application to the Province of B.C.’s Micro-credential Call for Proposals, an initiative aimed at post-secondary institutions to develop micro-credentials — short-term training that is under 288 hours — that are focused on readying or upskilling those in the workforce.

According to the city’s “Strategic Plan,” the goals of “being efficient and effective, including advancing as a city and continually improving our services and programs towards our vision of providing the best-in-class customer service” were met with the pilot project proposal.

“Attracting top talent by creating the environment that attracts and keeps the best talent to deliver top-notch city services,” wrote city director of corporate services, Bree Seabrook, in her report to council.

She said the city was committed to developing a leadership development program in the next few years which would include elements of project management, including change management.

“To address the need for project management training in a cost-effective way, and in a manner that could be delivered to a large group and subsequently to staff as they are on-boarded, we reached out to Selkirk College to see if this is something they could offer,” she explained.

The micro-credential call was put forth by Selkirk College.

Micro-credentials

The micro-credential will provide evidence of the competencies achieved as well as provide opportunity to take further training through stackable courses, according to the college application.

The Project Management training program is currently anticipated to be comprised of seven stackable courses, along with a proposed community of practice framework to further the building of competencies, said Seabrook.

“As part of the micro-credential development, a hybrid delivery option will be explored to provide flexibility to our workforce so as to tailor program delivery to their needs and capacity,” she wrote in the letter of support from the city.

“In addition, the micro-credential is envisioned to be supported by a community of practice framework to help structure the group and foster collaboration and knowledge sharing after the courses are completed while employees are applying the knowledge gained from the training.”

The city would provide feedback at key development and delivery milestones.